In Search of the Dreamfinder
by Theodore Hawkwood
Summary: A continuation to my AU Fics Journey of a Halliwell and Once Upon a Time in Traverse Town. Prue and the Morrowind's crew must journey to a land called EPCOT to find the Dreamfinder before Imhotep finds him.
1. Searching for the Dreamfinder

Searching for the Dreamfinder

Disclaimer: Same as before...

AN: This is a continuation of the fics _Journey of a Halliwell_ and _Once Upon A Time in Traverse Town_.

* * *

"She's so adorable..." Prue cooed, as she watched Lal in her bassinet. Kida had gone to the infirmary for a checkup and Milo was on duty.

"Only when she's asleep." Andy quipped, sitting far away from the bassinet.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of the baby?" Prue asked, smiling with amusement.

"Every time I've even touched the kid she starts crying and wailing." Andy said, "I must be cursed."

"You weren't holding her right the last time." Prue replied, lifting Lal out of her bassinet, "Here, take her."

"I don't know if I should, Prue." Andy replied.

"Come on." Prue said, Lal's eyes opened and she regarded Prue for a bit and then yawned.

"I guess she can't be that unfriendly, huh." Andy replied and took the baby. Lal yawned again and blinked a little.

"Aww," Andy grinned, "I guess the little one is kinda cute."

Andy tickled little Lal underneath the chin and she promptly spit milk all over his shirt. "Babies do that." Prue quipped.

"I did that yesterday, mate." Godfrey commented, chuckling after witnessing the event in question, "Thankfully I was intending to shower after exercising anyway."

Doc walked into the room just then and Godfrey turned to him, saying, "Another challenge beckons my friend."

"I am unbeatable, and prepare to be beaten my friend." Doc replied, taking a trio of darts from a slender case in his pocket, "Custom graphite tips and finely balanced center of gravity."

"Is it just me or are those two obsessed with darts?" Andy asked.

"It's not just you." Prue replied, "Doc had those darts custom made in Traverse Town last week."

Godfrey replied to Doc's challenge, "Welshmen never yield."

"If I remember correctly the 24th Welsh Foot's rugby team got trounced by the Scots Guards last time we were in EPCOT." Doc remarked.

"That was a fluke, mate." Godfrey replied.

"Don't get him started." Prue remarked, "If you get him started on either rugby matches or boxing matches, Godfrey will be going on about them all night."

"At Chillingborough we were fans of sport as much as we were students." Godfrey retorted.

"I didn't know you were Welsh." Andy replied.

"On my mum's side." Godfrey replied.

"Prepare to taste cold steel…" Doc began, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Welshman never yield." Godfrey replied, "But I will be sporting and allow you the first throw."

"You're too kind." Doc replied, and threw the first dart. It promptly buried itself into the board very close to the bulls-eye.

Godfrey threw his dart, which hit the bulls-eye's small outer ring. Doc threw his next dart which hit the bulls-eye itself. Godfrey threw his next hit which hit outboard of Doc's first dart. Doc threw his last hit which was another bulls-eye. Godfrey threw his last hit which landed right below Doc's first hit.

"I do believe you are bested." Doc smiled.

"Wanker." Godfrey replied.

"And I believe that's pint number seven you owe me." Doc replied.

"You two are the only people I've ever met who make darts a competitive sport." Prue replied.

"Or a pathological obsession." Andy quipped.

"Guys," Milo said, walking in, "We're coming in for a landing."

Andy handed Lal back to her father who noticed the spit-up on Andy's shirt. "Don't take it personally, she does that to us too."

"None taken." Andy replied.

"Come here sweetheart." Milo said, cradling his daughter who was cooing softly as he walked out of the room back to his own quarters.

The ship landed half an hour later on EPCOT's airfield.

* * *

2nd Lieutenant Armand D'Artagnan gulped at the bowl of soup with his heavily bandaged hands. He grumbled as he watched yet another transport full of troops take off for Cairo, to join the fighting in North Africa. His grumbling increased as he watched the airship landing. The _Morrowind_ was where his orders placed him, instead of back with 1 SAS (1st Special Air Service regiment), fighting with the Free French elements of that formation. _Serving on a damned airship, probably writing intelligence reports and not fighting the Germans and the Heartless that have overwhelmed my home. Damn them. Damn bureaucrats. _D'Artagnan thought.

He finished gulping at the watery onion soup with a couple chunks of beef floating in it before setting the bowl aside onto the table next to his bed. He shared the room in the hospital with seven other soldiers from all Allied units. There was an American merchant sailor whose ship had been torpedoed by a U-boat several days ago, his left leg was encased in a plaster cast and burns covered much of his left arm and chest. An Australian airman occupied the adjacent bed, a bomber pilot with both arms broken and left encased in plaster down to the knee after having been shot down in North Africa.

"How are the hands, mate?" the Australian asked.

"Stiff." D'Artagnan replied brusquely.

"You could be worse off." The Australian replied, "I did have a promising football (AN: soccer in this case) career before my leg went to batshit."

"Worse still, you could be this poor bastard." D'Artagnan commiserated. A Canadian soldier on the bed to D'Artagnan's left had his jaw wired together as well as a missing left arm. The right was encased in a plaster cast.

"What happened to you?" The Australian asked, trading injury stories was a common pastime at Allied Military Hospital 101.

"You didn't hear?" An Englishman in the bed across the room and to D'Artagnan's right with most of his head above the right eye bandaged declared from across the room began.

"No. I've only been here a week, mate." The Australian replied.

"It was on one of our raids against a German airfield. One of our jeeps caught fire and a group of Heartless attacked." The Englishman replied, "This crazy Frenchmen jumped off his speeding jeep and not only dragged the three chaps in the vehicle to safety, he actually rerouted a stream of flaming oil into the band of attacking Heartless."

"Explains the burns." The Australian remarked.

"And the damnable assignment." D'Artagnan growled.

"Lieutenant D'Artagnan?" A round faced orderly began, "Your release papers and orders for your next assignment, sir."

"Thank you private." D'Artagnan replied, "You may go."

The British orderly walked briskly out of the room as D'Artagnan climbed out of bed. He could close and unclose his hands a little bit, and the burns around his fingers had disappeared. He could handle a rifle and squeeze the trigger, he guessed. He'd been practicing with the American's crutch in lieu of a weapon and longed to hold a rifle once more, firing killing rounds against those who had invaded and defiled France.

Waiting for him outside of the room was a dark haired British officer, in the tropical uniform of the Indian Army. Judging from his shoulder patch and cap device he was a member of the Royal Indian Engineers. _Great, a damn builder. That's my boss?_

"Lieutenant D'Artagnan?"

"Yes sir." D'Artagnan replied, noting the Englishman's senior rank.

"1st Lieutenant Godfrey, His Majesty's Royal Indian Engineers."

"2nd Lieutenant D'Artagnan, 1 Special Air Service."

"A good outfit, from what I've heard. They've brought about their share of devastation to the Germans and the Heartless in North Africa." Godfrey replied.

"Yes sir." D'Artagnan replied, in hopefully a respectful enough tone.

"If I may ask," D'Artagnan replied, "What is it we do aboard these airships?"

"I can't disclose exactly what it is we do." Godfrey replied, sliding an envelope into D'Artagnan's pocket, "Not here, but read and destroy the contents of this envelope."

D'Artagnan complied, the contents were vague, about some organization called the Allied Intelligence Bureau. But still it wasn't the opportunity to avenge the indignity he had endured as an officer of a defeated nation that he wanted. He wasn't going to be going behind enemy lines. He was going to be working for Allied Intelligence, dealing in information. He ripped the letter apart as instructed and tossed it into the nearest wastebasket a sullen expression on his face as he headed for the Morrowind.

* * *

_Nine days. How do I tell Prue I'm going to be dead in nine days and there's nothing she can do about it. _Andy thought. The Morrowind's gangplank came down and a burst of tropical humidity welcomed Andy. He saw Godfrey carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder and another officer, judging by his cap, in a desert brown uniform with heavily bandaged hands.

"Andy, this is Armand D'Artagnan of his Majesty's Special Air Service." Godfrey replied.

"I'd shake your hand…" Andy began.

"Ridiculous." D'Artagnan replied, "I am almost entirely healed."

They shook hands, Andy taking the Frenchman's right hand to do so and noticing D'Artagnan held in a wince.

Mole headed into the corridor just then and Godfrey introduced him to D'Artagnan. "**_I'll show you to your quarters._**" Mole began, in French.

"Merci beaucoup." D'Artagnan replied. The two men headed off down the corridor.

"Have you told Prue yet?" Godfrey asked Andy after D'Artagnan and Mole were out of earshot.

"No." Andy replied.

"I've grown rather close to her." Godfrey began, and added, "As a friend, and I really don't want to see her hurt."

"For all I know this could be something bogus." Andy replied.

"Nontheless," Godfrey replied, "If it's bogus, you two can look back on this lot and put it all behind you. If it isn't, then it won't take Prue by surprise."

"Why put her through all that pain?" Andy replied.

"It's going to hurt her either way." Godfrey replied, "If you die, you'll devastate her all the more because you never came clean with her."

"Thank you Dr. Phil." Andy said, defensively.

"I only ask that you come clean with her, as a friend I don't want to see her hurt." Godfrey replied, as he headed down the corridor.

* * *

The Dreamfinder ducked deeper into the culvert. The voices of German and Italian soldiers, the barking of dogs echoed over the grasses and the shallow water in the culvert. He could hear the high pitched chittering sound of Heartless communicating among themselves, he could hear the feet of Shadow Heartless sliding across the grass and the pavement.

"He can't have gone far! Find him." The command of a woman shouted.

Second Lieutenant Victor Garibaldi, of the Italian Bersaglieri, an elite mountain infantry force listened to the grumbling of two Italian soldiers as they waded in knee deep swamp water behind a Search Ghost. This breed of Heartless was said to be better than bloodhounds at tracking men, but they were certainly a lot less appealing to their troops.

"Fat lot of good they're doing." One Italian soldier grumbled, "We've been at this for days. How long does it take to find a fat, bearded old dreamer?"

"I don't know, nor do I care." The other soldier growled back, "But I'm sick of chasing this 'magical' being. We should be in North Africa, not on this 'neutral ground'."

"You could be the poor bastards on the steppes of Russia." The first soldier replied, "Personally this embassy duty is a welcome break."

"What part of silence do you not understand?" A German officer demanded, "The reason we've not found this Dreamfinder is partly because of your mindless chatter."

"It is only idle soldier's chatter." Garibaldi said to the German lieutenant, "Leave it be."

"German soldiers do not complain nearly as much as Italians." The German lieutenant replied, "Perhaps that is why _der Fuhrer_ succeeds with Germans, but must always rescue Italians."

_Arrogant bastard._ Garibaldi thought, cursing his allies. It wasn't the fault of the soldiers themselves, it was largely his contemporaries. Not a single Italian officer in charge of the one hundred and eleven men in his company had turned out for this search.

The Dreamfinder was so close to the men that he could hear the grumble of the two Italian soldiers, the argument with the German officer with his Italian contemporary, and the sound of half a dozen German soldiers with a second Search Ghost. He closed his eyes and felt his spirit leave his body.

Within a few minutes he heard the shout of "_Schnell! Schnell!" _

The detachment of Germans, Italians and Heartless raced to a location almost half a mile away. "_Raus! Raus!_" A German soldier shouted as he aimed his weapon at the Dreamfinder's astral projection.

"You idiot! We want him alive!" came the shout from a German NCO.

The Dreamfinder heard the gunshots that brought him some breathing room as he brought himself back into his body. He crawled from the muck of the culvert, his clothing soaked, worn out, and tattered. He had been sleeping with one eye open for days as the Heartless searched for him, with their German and Italian pawns.

The Germans had believed that they had been spared the fate of other worlds by siding with the Heartless and Imhotep. The Nazis believed that they would gain dominion over all, by using the Heartless, but had no idea that they themselves were being used. The moment the Heartless had been triumphant, they would turn on their German, Italian, and Japanese allies.

* * *

Matthias Vossman sat at his hospital bed at Military Hospital 17, just outside the German Consulate in EPCOT. He scratched futilely under his cast for the fifth time that hour. He glanced around the room and realized he had been the more fortunate of the German and Italian soldiers in there. At Bir Hachiem, a French artillery shell had exploded beside his vehicle, flinging him outward, making him land on his arm at a bad angle. The other seven Germans sitting in the truck had been killed in the blast. He would have shared the Dreamfinder's sentiment but knew better than to voice it.

The room had eight occupants in all. Germans wounded from the Mediterranean and even a few from the Eastern Front and the Balkans. Even a U-boat sailor, a slight and bearded young man in his late teens, his head swathed in bandages lay catatonic and unmoving in his bed. He had been there for almost two weeks, since a British destroyer had sunk his submarine, U-712, off the coast of Libya. The Italian freighter crew that had yanked him from the sea had said the boy had said nothing since his rescue.

An officer of the **Waffen-SS** lay in another bed at his side. His left arm had been amputated practically to his shoulder, leaving only a stump half the length of the original upper arm. His left eye was covered by an eye patch.

"_Soldat," _the SS officer began, "How is the North Africa campaign?"

"We took Bir Hachiem shortly after I was wounded, sir. So I presume things are going well." Mathias replied.

"We will tear them to shreds. That is my firm belief." The SS officer replied.

"Listen smart guy." The other officer in the room, a major with a broken leg from the 90th _Panzergrenadier_ Division, replied, "Churchill is a long way from shreds."

"We will crush them, Herr Major." Oberleutnant Spontz, the SS Officer replied.

"The British still offer stiff resistance." The Major replied, indicating the U-boat sailor, "On all fronts. Our friend from the _Kriegsmarine _will attest that, were he in fact capable of speaking."

"It is of no concern." Spontz replied, "Daily the Heartless make other gains."

"What of Mayapore? Of India where the Japanese failed to advance?" the major contested, "I wonder how many more fresh troops arrive through the Suez from India, or from Britain while we sit here on our asses waiting."

"It is of no difference. _Der Reichsfuhrer_ has led us to victory against great odds before." Spontz replied.

"Reinforcements, supplies, where are they?" the major railed, "Fighter escorts for the transports, where are they? Answer that Herr Goring. Talking big is the only thing that fat slob is good for."

"I wouldn't want our leadership hearing your words, Herr Major." Spontz replied.

"How were you wounded, _herr leutnant_?" the major replied, emphasizing Spontz's lower rank.

"On the Eastern front, against the Russians. The fucking partisans have no courage. They simply attack us and go into hiding." Spontz replied, fingering a lock of hair in his remaining hand, "They chopped a tree down to block the road, and set off a mine beside our trucks."

"Whose hair is that, sir?" Matthias asked.

"A Russian partisan girl. The sub-human beasts use women to fight behind our frontline." Spontz replied. "She fought like a wildcat before we ultimately killed her."

Two orderlies came into the room, and took the catatonic U-boat sailor from his bed. Accompanying them was a doctor in the tailored black uniform of the SS. They took the sailor somewhere else, not saying anything. They took the catatonic sailor where they took the wounded who were most likely to die, to a place other patients called the Dying Room. They believed it was a place that the doctor took those poor souls so they could die out of sight of fellow patients to save their morale. A wonderful fantasy, but a lie.

The two orderlies pushed the gurney to an elevator leading into a sub basement. The first place they walked into was an anteroom where two grim faced **SS-Totenkopfverbande** guards stood at a door with Schmeisser MP-40 machine-pistols in their hands and P-38 9mm pistols at their hips. The guards extended their right hands in the standard Nazi salute.

The door opened and the gurney was pushed in. Half a dozen comatose and nearly dead German and Italian patients lay on similar gurneys. All around him several special trained surgical orderlies. He nodded to an orderly who hooked an IV into the sailor's right arm, putting a potent cocktail of muscle relaxant and three or four other chemicals into his system.

The orderly looked into the face of the catatonic sailor. He was told that the boy would feel no pain, but he saw the single tear coming out of the corner of his left eye. The orderly blinked as the chemicals coursed through the body of the sailor. The doctor nodded and he attached the electrodes to the patient's chest and closed the circuit. The boy's back arched almost making him snap his own spine. He convulsed and shook with seizure, his open eyes were replaced with two faintly glowing yellow orbs, his legs fused together into a tail like appendage, and his arms became claws. The apparition of a Search Ghost lay in place of the wounded sailor…

* * *

Kida cradled a cooing Lal in her arms as she and Prue walked together outside the _Morrowind_. "How do you deal with it, Kida?" Prue asked.

"With what?" Kida asked.

"With the fact that your world was destroyed." Prue asked.

"I remember that life goes on." Kida replied, "I grieve for those I love who died, but remember that those I love still live. And even the dead still live on in my heart."

Kida reached out her index finger to Lal who took it with her small hand and began a new cycle of cooing softly. Prue smiled as well.

"And then I remember that life continues when I look into her face." Lal began.

"Kida, Prue," Godfrey said as he approached, "Kolopak says we leave in twenty minutes."

"Thank you Godfrey." Prue replied.

Andy came walking over to them, taking Prue's hand in his. Kida detected a twinge in Godfrey's eyes, but it disappeared under an implacable façade. _This must be heart breaking for him. _Kida thought.

Andy and Prue kissed tenderly for a moment before heading off on their own. Godfrey nodded with a nod and smile, walking off. Kida took his arm with a knowing look.

"This must be trying for you." Kida said.

"I'll be alright." Godfrey replied, "I just need to stay busy, and certainly things seem like I won't be having time for things of this nature."

"Godfrey, I know you don't mean what you just said." Kida replied.

"Do you." Godfrey replied.

"I can tell you and Prue have gotten close as friends over time." Kida replied, smiling knowingly. Godfrey grinned faintly.

"I'd best be going." Godfrey replied. Kida tugged back on his arm with her own, "I know you feel more about Prue than friendship."

Godfrey nodded, "That makes two who know."

"Who else?" Kida asked.

"Doc." Godfrey replied, "Then again, the chap's been able to read me like a book practically since I came aboard."

"Doc is good at sensing human nature." Kida smiled, "It's part of the trade."

"Understand this." Godfrey sighed, "I do have feelings for Prue, but I know she loves Andy."

It all came together for Kida. No wonder Godfrey had been a bit distant over the past couple days with Prue. He had feelings for her and refused to act on them. He respected Prue's relationship with Andy and that she loved someone else. But she could also see it was gnawing at him.

"You haven't told her how you feel, have you?" Kida asked.

"I haven't." Godfrey replied, "I don't want to hurt her, or lose her as a friend."

"At least if you tell her, you'll have it off your chest." Kida advised.

"And if I tell her, I lose her as a friend." Godfrey replied, "So I ask that you don't speak a word of this to anyone. _Especially_ Vinny. You know he's a hopeless romantic underneath the mad scientist air."

"Who can forget the Barmaid Incident?" Kida laughed, at Godfrey's blank stare she added, "It happened before you showed up. Vinny was so taken by this barmaid that he started writing poetry and tried to make a pyrotechnics show in her name. What happened was she rebuffed him, the British Army thought Traverse Town was being attacked and Vinny spent the night in jail and a month moping over her."

Godfrey laughed despite himself, not noticing three people had overheard his conversation.

"I told you…" Donald said.

"Gawrsh, I thought Prue and Godfrey were just really good friends." Goofy replied.

"So did I." Sora replied, "So Godfrey's in love with Prue, but Prue is with Andy and Godfrey doesn't want to say anything."

"Godfrey feels more about Prue than friendship, I can tell." Donald replied.

"That has to hurt, that he cares about her but can't say anything." Sora replied.

"Not can't, Sora." Goofy replied, "Won't. There's a difference."

"There is?" Sora asked.

"Yes." Donald replied, "Nothing's stopping Godfrey from telling her other than he feels obligated to keep it a secret."

"Why doesn't he tell her?" Goofy asked.

Donald rolled his eyes, "It's because he respects her relationship with Andy."

"I'll never understand love." Sora groaned, "Adults are so weird."

"Well there was always the whole thing with Kairi…" Donald replied, "So you do have some understanding of love."

"I like Kairi, but it's not the same thing." Sora replied, feeling the pangs in his heart. He missed Kairi, missed her smile, missed the innocent good times they had before the Destiny Islands were destroyed.

"Yes it is." Donald replied, "And no it isn't."

"No more riddles, Donald, please." Sora groaned.

"So do you think that he'll tell her?" Goofy asked.

"I'm a wizard, not a psychic." Donald replied.

"There's a difference?" Sora asked.

"I can't see the future!" Donald replied waving his arms as they walked and walked straight into a palm tree.

"You can't see the present either." Sora quipped.

"You're starting to sound like Nigel." Donald grumbled.

"Fancy a spot of tea, dear Donald…." Sora said, in a badly mangled British accent.

"Oh brother." Donald grumbled.

"Hyuk. He got you there. You can't see the present." Goofy laughed, "Or the future."

"Who do you think I am? Phoebe Halliwell?" Donald snapped, flapping his arms, and accidentally getting his finger stuck into one of the electric de-icers on the _Morrowind's_ hull.

"WWWAAAAAKKKKK!" Donald shouted.

Audrey came running, "Are you OK?"

"Do I look OK?" Donald asked, missing quite a few feathers, with most of the ones still on his body being rather badly singed.

"For a wizard, you're not too careful." Audrey remarked.

Donald walked over to the palm tree, grabbed the trunk with both hands, and started banging his head against it in frustration.

"Was it something I said?" Audrey asked.

"Naw, Donald will get over it in twenty more whacks, or he'll give himself a headache." Goofy replied.

"You _hombres_ are so weird." Audrey replied.

"Why is Donald banging his head against that palm tree?" Sora asked.

"He's just a bit frustrated amigo." Audrey replied.

"You act like he's done this before." Sora began.

"Ah-hyuck. Donald does this all the time. I remember when he tried to make this spectacular magic light show for Daisy. It backfired and wound up decorating the side of the castle and the king in neon pink, orange, and purple. He put several dents in our wall before he knocked himself our." Goofy replied, "One…two…three…"

"Why are you counting?" Sora asked.

"I'm just wondering how many times he'll bang his head before knocking himself out…" Goofy replied.

BOINK! A coconut fell from the palm tree, followed by half a dozen of its fellows and all landed on Donald's head. CRASH! WHUMP! SMASH! CRACK! WHACK! POW!

Donald staggered away from the palm tree, "Wuh…wuh…wuh…." Donald said, staggering drunkenly before falling over.

"Wow, twenty-seven, that's a new record." Goofy began.

"You guys are so weird." Audrey remarked.

* * *

TBC

**SS-Totenkopfverbande** – It literally means SS-Death's head. These were members of the German Schutzstaffel (Defense Squadron), the Nazi Party's most hardcore military arm. The Totenkopf men served as Concentration Camp guards and rarely fought on the frontlines during World War II.

**Waffen-SS – **Actual combat arm of the SS. These were some of Germany's toughest fighting units.


	2. The Search Begins

The Search Begins

Disclaimer: Same as before…

* * *

"Are you alright, Donald?" Prue asked, several minutes later.

"I have a splitting headache…" Donald complained.

"Well, no wonder mate," Godfrey began, "That's what you get when you bang your head against a tree multiple times…"

"You should be more careful, _mon ami_." D'Artagnan observed, rubbing his brown beard with his fingers.

"I am careful!" Donald protested.

"Not from where I stand." D'Artagnan replied, "First you got your index finger into the electric deicer which put several volts of electricity into your body. Then you bashed your head multiple times into the palm tree."

"To be fair, that was intentional on the part of our fine, feathered friend." Godfrey observed.

"Still rather foolish if you ask me." D'Artagnan replied.

"Oh brother…" Donald grumbled, drumming his fingers on the side of the examining table.

"You're cleared to go, brother." Doc replied, grinning.

"I'll give you a heads up when we are ready to go, _mon ami._" D'Artagnan began.

Donald left the room grumbling about smart-aleck Frenchmen. "Nice bumping into you." Godfrey added.

Donald added another grumbled remark about smart mouthed Englishmen as well. "Normally they say we British are rather dry of wit." Godfrey remarked.

"That is only because the French taught you." D'Artagnan replied, smiling.

"Bollocks!" Godfrey replied.

"William the Conqueror? 1066? Hastings?" D'Artagnan replied.

"You wanker, William eventually became British!" Godfrey replied.

"I don't know, Godfrey," Prue replied, innocently, "If I remember, William the Conqueror was a Norman and that's about as French as you can get…to most historians. To be honest I'm more worried about Donald."

"Aw shucks," Goofy replied, "Don't worry about it. He does that all the time when he gets frustrated. I can't remember how many times we've had to fix dents in the castle's wall every time a spell backfires."

_I've joined a damn circus. _D'Artagnan thought. _Two Disney characters, a witch, a princess, a mad bomber…_

"Vinny! Yer daid you stinkin' varmint!" Cookie's shout could be heard echoing through the halls.

Just then an Italian man with a black mushroom cut and mustache with a black sweater and a metal breastplate came running by them at high speed. Prue yanked him back with her telekinesis.

"What did you make this time?" Prue asked.

"A cantaloupe cocktail." Vinny replied, "Save me from that insane frontier's man, please!"

"What?" D'Artagnan asked.

"That's Vinny." Godfrey began, "He has a tendency to make all kinds of crazy inventions when he's bored. Most of them are of the explosive or incendiary variety."

"What's a cantaloupe cocktail?" Prue asked.

"I loaded a hollowed out cantaloupe with nitro-glycerin but then I had to go on duty. I left it in the kitchen and…" Vinny replied.

"There yah are yah stinkin' varmint! Prepare to die!" Cookie shouted, waving a wooden spoon with a crazed look in his eyes. He was covered in cantaloupe juice and fruit rinds.

"Wait a second!" Prue shouted, "Kill each other later, what happened."

"I was mindin' mah own business, cuttin' some cantaloupe for desert when one of those things explodes and sends fruit pulp and cantaloupe rinds all over mah kitchen!" Cookie shouted.

"Oh no…" Vinny groaned.

The sounds of fighting could be heard as Cookie proceeded to beat the tar out Vinny over the exploding cantaloupes.

"It would appear explosions are commonplace here." D'Artagnan replied.

"More than you realize." Prue replied.

"Hold him down Cookie!" Andy shouted, "Let me hit him for a few hours!"

"Andy, what's going on?" Prue asked, intercepting him, "PU! You smell!"

"I went into the kitchen for a sandwich and when I opened the refrigerator I got splattered with pressurized liquid limburger cheese"

"Eh-heh heh…" Vinny said, "Behold the power of cheese."

"Behold the power of a pissed off ex-quarter back." Andy countered.

"Andy, calm down." Prue replied, she turned to Vinny and Cookie, who she separated using her telekinesis, "Why did you invent a pressurized liquid limburger cheese sprayer, Vinny?"

"I was bored." The Italian replied.

* * *

"Off for a quiet moment?" Goofy asked when he walked into the lounge, to find Godfrey taking in the view of the grayish clouds blowing over EPCOT, and again writing in a small notebook.

"I've always found the view to be quite lovely outside of this window." Godfrey replied.

"It helps to have a place to get away from what bothers you." Doc added, as he walked in, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm alright. We've got a mission and Vinny's definitely provided his share of comic relief." Godfrey replied.

"I know these past few days haven't been easy for you, Godfrey." Goofy replied.

"Excuse me." Godfrey replied, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"It can't be easy to care for someone who loves another man." Goofy replied.

"I'll be alright." Godfrey replied, "I'm busy enough."

"You can't keep running, Godfrey." Doc replied, "Sooner or later you're going to have to be honest with this."

"And what, lose Prue as a friend." Godfrey replied.

"If you're really friends," Goofy replied, "you can be honest with each other."

"I do think this is a slightly different situation." Godfrey replied, "May I ask why this is such a pressing matter?"

"As a friend, I'm worried about you." Doc replied, "You're caring a lot about Prue's feelings but you're ignoring your own."

"It's absolutely ridiculous. Telling her would only exacerbate things." Godfrey argued.

"If you tell her that you respect her feelings for Andy, she'll understand." Goofy replied.

"Things could well be awkward for us both." Godfrey replied.

"You'll get over that." Doc argued back.

"Didn't you say it's wrong to deceive someone you care about?" Goofy replied.

"This is a slightly different situation." Godfrey replied.

"If you really care for her, you'll tell her." Doc replied, "At the very least you'll get this of your chest."

"I'll keep that in mind." Godfrey replied, as he walked out of the room.

"That went well." Goofy noted.

* * *

**Gefrieter **Matthias Vossman winced as the cast was removed from his arm. "You're on light duty for the next month, and soon you will be back to the front." The German doctor began.

"Thank you, _herr doktor_." Vossman replied.

Three other patients had been cleared, a sergeant from the **Grossdeutschland Division** and two **panzergrenadiers** from the 15th **Panzer** Division.

An **Oberscharführer **from the SS-Totenkopf walked in just then, and extended his right arm to salute the doctor. The doctor absently returned the salute, and the NCO turned on the four soldiers.

"You are on temporary duty on the German security squadron until you are to be shipped back to your units. I am **Oberscharführer **Haendler, your direct superior." Haendler replied, "**Unterfeldwebel **Nattermann, you are the sergeant of the guard. Vossman, you and those two panzergrenadiers are on security patrol duty from 13.00 to 18.00 (1 PM – 6 PM), effective immediately."

The four men proceeded out of the hospital and into the Germany Pavillion. Outside the hospital stood two Italian riflemen, a Search Ghost, and an Italian officer. Haendler saluted the Italian officer who returned the gesture, a look of scorn just barely concealed on his face. _We've had to bail your worthless hides out everywhere. Greece, Albania, North Africa. You wouldn't have taken Greece had it not been for German help. _Haendler thought.

They proceeded to the consulate's armory where they received their rifles and Natterman received his pistol and sub-machinegun and the combined Italian, German patrol began their roving search.

* * *

"If this is neutral ground," Prue began, "Why are they carrying rifles?"

"Just because it's neutral ground, it doesn't mean that either trusts the other." Doc replied, indicating the patrol of four British soldiers wearing red berets that marched by Spaceship Earth.

"A tough lot as well." Godfrey replied, "Those chaps are Paras."

"Paras?" Andy asked.

"Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment," Godfrey explained, "England's toughest troops."

"For neutral territory there sure are a lot of guns." Andy quipped.

"Several of the countries represented in the World Showcase are at war with each other." Kolopak replied.

"Doesn't EPCOT have its own security force?" Andy asked.

"They do." Kolopak replied, "The EPCOT Security Force."

A trio of blue uniformed men, with white caps carried American made M1 Carbines marched briskly by them.

"Speak of the devil." Godfrey noted as they marched past.

"OK, we'll split up into teams." Kolopak said, "Milo, you stay with me, Mole, and Andy. Prue, you stay with Sora, Goofy, and Donald. Godfrey, Doc, D'Artagnan and Vinny you form the third team. I'll start with Spaceship Earth, Godfrey, your team starts with The Living Seas and work your way towards my team. Donald, your team starts at the Universe of Energy and head towards us. We'll meet at Spaceship Earth. Now, I want you to get as much information as you can from cast members, ride operators and anyone who might know where the Dreamfinder is." Kolopak began.

The teams were about to head off in their respective directions when D'Artagnan asked, "Would it not be more prudent to go straight to Journey into the Imagination? That is where the Dreamfinder makes his home."

"He's obviously not going to be there, but we should search for either clues of his whereabouts or if he might be hiding at those pavilions." Kolopak replied.

"Unlikely. The Germans will likely have searched them all." D'Artagnan replied, "They would presume that was the first place he would hide."

As if to prove his point, a mixed patrol of Germans and Italians walked out of Spaceship Earth. The nearby Paras shadowed the German patrol until it marched back towards the World Showcase, where a combined patrol of British and American troops shadowed them until they crossed into the Germany pavilion.

"Why are the paratroopers following them?" Prue asked.

"To keep the Germans from getting out of hand." D'Artagnan replied, "It's maintaining a balance of power here. They do the same to our patrols."

Prue couldn't help but imagine that beneath the neutral and seemingly peaceful exterior of EPCOT lurked a powder keg.

* * *

The Dreamfinder glanced out of the copse of pine and palm trees he had hidden. For days he had remained hidden from the Germans and Italians and their damnable Search Ghosts. Tears made channels into the grime that covered his face. His own dream of a neutral world where nations could have some measure of peace was in jeopardy. Armed soldiers were shadowing one another around the World Showcase Lagoon, and he watched as a German and Italian patrol was shadowed by a mixed unit of British and Americans.

This wasn't what he intended when he willed the idea of a Neutral Ground into the imaginations of the League of Nations. The organization had collapsed shortly after the war. What man was capable of imagining could be both wonderful and terrifying. What the Dreamfinder was seeing was bordering onto the terrifying side. He was the subject of a massive manhunt, many of the nations represented in the World Showcase were at war with each other, and armed soldiers were present.

His stomach growled, a couple crackers and a handful of water was not a decent breakfast by any stretch of the imagination. _Talk about one hell of a diet. _Dreamfinder thought. _One more week of this and my suits will stop feeling so snug around the midriff._

He heard the sounds of reeds being crushed as boots crushed down on them. The Dreamfinder grabbed a hollow reed and lay on his back, closing his eyes and sticking the reed in his mouth, breathing through it. Less than three feet away he could hear a German officer shouting orders.

The stagnant water became turbid as the boots of a German soldier were visible. He was so close that Dreamfinder could here him talking to his fellow soldier.

"Fucking grass." The soldier grumbled, "Fucking heat. Fucking swampland."

"Save the fucking for the brothels." Another soldier replied.

This occasioned some laughter from the other German soldiers before an NCO hissed at them to be quiet. Little did the German sergeant who dressed his men down realize that his foot was atop the Dreamfinder's hand.

The soldier that had begun grumbling started a new series of complaints, as he slogged through the knee deep water ahead of him. The rest of the patrol followed after him, slogging through the bog.

That was way too close for comfort. Dreamfinder realized yet again he'd eluded capture by the Germans by a hairsbreadth. He desperately hoped that the _Morrowind's _crew would find him before the Germans or the Heartless did.

* * *

"How hard can it be to find a fat, bearded old dreamer?" Oogie Boogie demanded.

"Harder than it looks." Imhotep shot back, "With the forces we have there."

"Why do you insist on using humans to track the Dreamfinder down?" Jafar insisted, "If we used Heartless…"

"If we used Heartless, the Charmed One would know the true importance of the Dreamfinder." Imhotep replied.

"Why not take over that pathetic little world?" Oogie Boogie replied.

"We don't want to spread ourselves out too far." Imhotep replied, "As it stands, our allies, even with the help of the Heartless, are having trouble on numerous fronts. The Americans have landed in North Africa, the British are rallying there as well. Rumors of counteroffensive operations in Burma are rife among the truth. The Chinese guerilla movements are becoming more than an irritant…"

"Pfah." Oogie Boogie replied, "We'll crush them like bugs."

"You said the same about Mayapore, but the British and Indians were able to throw the Heartless back. The Japanese are coming under pressure from the Americans as well." Imhotep replies.

"The human allies are of little consequence. They're simply holding up large numbers of Allied troops." Oogie Boogie replied.

"We will find the Dreamfinder." Imhotep replied.

"And his power of Inspiration will be ours." Jafar replied, "Strengthening our hand."

* * *

"I didn't know that EPCOT let garbage in." D'Artagnan commented as they passed by a fellow in the blue uniform of a French _gendarme _(police officer), a member of the Millce, or the **Vichy** France government.

"Careful, D'Artagnan…" Vinny warned.

"Excuse me, monsieur." The gendarme replied, "Are you addressing me?"

"Perhaps." D'Artagnan shrugged.

"Are you aware you are addressing a member of the French government." The _gendarme_ replied.

"The true French government left with Degaulle!" D'Artagnan replied, "And you dare call yourself a true Frenchman, you collaborator!"

"It is better to be at the devil's side than in his path." The _gendarme_ replied, "How long do you think the Allies can last fighting the combined forces of the Axis and the Heartless. It took less than three weeks to take France…"

"And elevate you to a position of some mock importance." D'Artagnan huffed, "As a true Frenchman you should have joined the Free French Forces and fought for our Fatherland."

The _gendarme_ replied, "What chance do you think the Allies have of victory? The Heartless take worlds day by…"

A blow from D'Artagnan's fist shut the man up. The _gendarme_ was offended and swung back, missing D'Artagnan by inches. D'Artagnan hit him again in the stomach and within a few punches he was pummeling and kicking the other man.

"Bugger off!" Godfrey shouted to the gendarme as he helped Doc pry D'Artagnan off of the Frenchman.

"Godfrey," Doc began, "We'd better go."

As Doc spoke, the bruised Vichy French official was racing off to a trio of his buddies and they rushed over towards the group.

"This isn't good is it?" Vinny replied.

"It appears we've a brawl on hand, gentlemen." Godfrey said, rolling up his sleeves.

The four Vichy Frenchmen launched themselves at Godfrey and the others and a proper scuffle ensued.

As they fought, a bunch of ESPOS with night sticks came running. "Oh bollocks…" Godfrey groaned as the EPCOT security police took the eight men to the lockup…

* * *

TBC

**Gefrieter – **German for Corporal.

**Grossdeutschland Division **– A German division consisting of men from all over Germany.

**Oberscharführer - **A staff sergeant in the Waffen-SS, a fairly senior non-comissioned officer. He outranks Matthias and his buddies.

**Panzer – **Tank or armored unit.

**Panzergrenadier – **The equivalent of a private, they served as riflemen in German Panzer divisions and typically rode half-tracks into the fighting.

**Unterfeldwebel **– A German infantry sergeant.

**Vichy France – **The portion of the French government that cooperated with the Germans during World War II. In this story, they're aligned with the bad guys.


	3. Confusing the Searchers

1Confusing the Searchers

Disclaimer: Same as before…

AN: This version of EPCOT is based off of the 1992-93 version of EPCOT.

* * *

"How did you four get into that fight again?" Kolopak said, as the ESPO guard opened the door to the holding cell containing Godfrey, D'Artagnan, Doc, and Vinny.

"I merely commented how they let trash into this place…" D'Artagnan remarked.

The four beat up Vichy French in the other cell bristled. "This ass insulted us!" One of them shouted.

"Insulted?" D'Artagnan replied, "Not hardly. I only spoke the truth."

"Gentlemen." The ESPO Chief of Police spoke, "This is a neutral ground, differences of opinion regarding government aside. I expect all parties to conduct themselves like gentlemen."

"Very difficult, if not damn near impossible for pigs to do." D'Artagnan replied with a derisive snort.

"Call me a pig will you?" the Vichy gendarme demanded.

"I'll call you worse than that!" D'Artagnan replied, "You are traitors to France…"

"We serve France."

"The French puppet government that the German swine have set up!" D'Artagnan shouted, "If you were true patriots you would join your countrymen instead of collaborating with the occupiers."

"I'd like a word with you, D'Artagnan, in private." Godfrey interjected as they were released, when they were alone he asked, "What the hell is your problem?"

"Traitors to France." D'Artagnan replied, "But I do not expect you will understand, for you are not French."

"I might ask what uniform you wear right now?" Godfrey asked.

"It is a British uniform." D'Artagnan replied.

"You serve as a member of His Majesty's forces for now, D'Artagnan." Godfrey replied, "I expect you to conduct yourself accordingly."

"_Oui mon leutnant._" D'Artagnan growled.

Godfrey fixed him with an equally determined stare, "Your disdain for collaborators in ranks, notwithstanding, you will keep the fact that we are on neutral ground in mind. Do we understand one another?"

"Yes sir." D'Artagnan replied.

* * *

"So who is this Dreamfinder, Donald?" Prue asked as the four of them continued their trip to the World of Motion. The Universe of Energy fellows hadn't been much help. The animatronic dinosaurs were entertaining, sure, but that was about it.

They walked towards a stainless steel, wheel shaped pavilion. The sign "World of Motion" was visible as they fell into the line.

"Most think he's an ordinary person, a fat guy with a big imagination," Donald replied, "But he's more than that. He's like a muse, he inspires thoughts and imaginings, he helps nurse dreams into being."

"So he basically built this place?" Prue asked.

"No," Donald replied, "The leaders of the nations represented here all had a hand in it, even Germany's old democratic **Weimar Republic**. The Dreamfinder inspired them to build a neutral ground where intellectual and scientific curiosity could flourish."

"It hasn't been working well." Prue observed, as they walked onto the moving platform and two American Military Policeman (MP) with carbines walked by.

"Sadly the war's touched here too." Donald replied, "There is the EPCOT Neutrality Treaty, which limits the number of soldiers any nation can have here."

The ride began and Prue couldn't help but relax and be amused by the portrayals human transportation, the caveman blowing on his foot, the sea captain gazing into the eyes of a sea monster, the half finished Mona Lisa painting...

The ride concluded and Prue blinked her eyes as they walked into the bright sunshine outside. This wasn't bad as far as searches went, despite the cloudy day outside and the presence of armed soldiers.

* * *

"Any luck?" Prue asked several hours later as the groups met back at the _Morrowind_.

"If these four hadn't gotten into a fight, we might have had an easier search of it." Kolopak replied gruffly.

Indeed D'Artagnan, Godfrey, Vinny, and Doc looked like they'd exchanged fisticuffs. "If you're looking for a chief culprit." Vinny began, pointing at D'Artagnan, "Blame this idiot!"

"Idiot? Idiot?" The bearded Frenchman shouted at the Italian, waving his arms, "You got into that fight too!"

"That was only because you dragged us into it!" Vinny replied.

"Both of you bloody stop!" Godfrey ordered.

"You're one to talk!" D'Artagnan reported, "I saw you put an elbow right into that Vichy pig's eye socket!"

"That was because you started the bloody fight to begin with! It had already escalated!" Godfrey snapped back.

"Will you three quit going at it like a trio of hyperactive cranky preschoolers, you're giving me a migrane!" Andy replied.

Kida came into the lounge with Lal wailing in her arms, "Now look what you've done, you just woke up the baby!" Milo shouted.

"If our French friend here hadn't started shouting, it wouldn't have happened." Vinny heatedly commented.

"Blame the French for everything why don't you?" D'Artagnan replied, "You damned Italian!"

"No, I'm not blaming the French, I'm blaming you!" Vinny replied.

"Well you can go take your inventions and shove them up your..." D'Artagnan replied.

"ENOUGH!" Kida shouted, and she spoke softly but in a no less reprimanding tone, "I would advise you gentlemen to be quieter next time, because if you wake my baby one more time with your arguing you are going to find something out..."

"And that would be?" D'Artagnan replied.

"Just how dangerous a mother protecting her offspring from predators can be." Kida replied, "Or in this case obnoxious assholes of any nationality."

"I'd love to see you try..." D'Artagnan grumbled.

Kida jumped into the air and kicked out her right leg, swinging it toward's D'Artagnan's head, knocking his cap off and rustling his hair.

"Point taken." Vinny replied.

"Good." Kida replied.

"Prue," Andy said, "I need to talk to you for a little bit..."

"Sure," Prue replied.

"Alone." Andy replied. Godfrey nodded and walked off.

* * *

Godfrey had walked across the tarmac to the nearby gymnasium. He locked his bag in a locker, and clad only in his swimming shorts he leaped into the pool and began to start swimming laps. There was something inherently soothing about water, about letting it cover him over entirely, feeling its cold embrace. He swam several powerful strokes, starting on yet another lap.

As soon as this fifty meter lap was finished he rested at the side of the pool when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Nigel, Prue's Whitelighter standing there.

"Getting a little exercise in, are we?" Nigel asked.

"Of course." Godfrey replied, "There's something soothing about water..."

"Prue could well be needing your help right now." Nigel observed.

"After nearly speaking my mind on a few occasions I've vowed to keep my nose out of Prue and Andy's affairs." Godfrey replied.

"Discrete as always, Godfrey." Nigel replied, "But I'm not asking you to spill your heart out to Prue, that's the last thing she needs right now."

"I'm glad we agree," Godfrey replied, positioning his feet on the walls of the pool, about to push off for yet another lap.

"And I recall you havingbeen quite a fan of the Bohemian ideals during your university days. What were they again? Truth, beauty, freedom, and love?" Nigel asked.

"Those were days long past." Godfrey replied.

"Are they. Truth you sought daily as a police officer in Mayapore. Beauty is something you can appreciate, and not simply Prue you understand. Freedom is what you joined the British Army to defend. And love is something you have."

"Last time I checked." Godfrey replied, "Prue was with Andy."

"I was referring to the love you have for your crewmates, Prue included. And their friendships with you, especially that friendship you have with Prue. She will be needing your support." Nigel replied, "I only ask as her Whitelighter, and as her friend, that you not push her away. Unless you want to end up frigid and unhappy like the Duke from that novel of the Moulin Rogue you still reread occasionally."

"I can only imagine what she thinks of me." Godfrey replied, treading water about eight meters away from the edge of the pool.

"You underestimate your worth." Nigel replied, "Prue may be head over heels in love with Andy, but sadly his time is short. Remember that lovers come and go but nothing can replace a good friend."

Nigel orbed out and Godfrey swam back to the pool's edge. He ran to the locker room, dried off, got back into his uniform and raced back to the _Morrowind. _

* * *

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Prue asked Andy.

_I can't do it...No, I have to do it. I owe that much to her. _Andy thought. "Prue, remember how Maleficent brought me back?"

"Vividly." Prue replied, "Andy, if you're worried that you're going to turn evil just because Maleficent..."

"No, Prue, it isn't that." Andy replied.

"Then what is it?" Prue asked.

Andy took a deep breath before he spoke, "Please let me finish. Promise me you won't interrupt."

"I won't." Prue replied, as Andy took her in his arms.

"Maleficent told me something about my creation. That necromancers can create two kinds of clones. A Type A that lives for one hundred years and a Type B that lives for two weeks." Andy replied.

"Unless you wanted to tell me you're worried that you'll outlive me by a few decades, I'm guessing you're a...Type B..." Prue replied, blinking.

Andy nodded silently, "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner..."

"That means you have only...Oh my God..." Prue moaned, "Less than nine days to live?"

"Yes." Andy replied.

"And you chose now to tell me?" Prue replied, breaking away from his embrace, a wounded look on her face.

"Prue, I didn't know about that until I told Maleficent it was off!" Andy protested.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Prue began, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"I don't know, Prue, something like this isn't something you slip in casually in conversation." Andy replied, "Hi honey, pass the butter. Oh by the way I have only nine days left to live."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Andy thought. _Why did I just act like such an ass to the woman I love?_

Prue replied heatedly, "You could have been a lot more honest with me about this!"

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Andy snapped back.

"Overreacting? I don't think so!" Prue replied, angrily, "First you tell me that you're going to die in nine days. Oh, and what's worse you don't tell me about it."

"Prue..." Andy began.

"Andy, I don't know what to say..." Prue replied, as she left the room, a choked sob in her throat.

Andy sat down on the bed of the quarters they shared, and buried his own head in his hands.

* * *

Godfrey walked aboard the Morrowind, the ship was largely darkened because everyone was asleep save for whoever was on night watch. He heard the sound of sobs from the lounge and he walked in, slowly. He saw Prue sitting on one of the couches.

"Hey," he said, gently, "Do you mind if I sit down?"

Prue didn't respond and Godfrey replied, gently, "If you'd rather be alone, I understand."

Godfrey turned to leave when Prue said, "No, wait..."

Godfrey turned and sat beside Prue. She turned towards him, her eyes reddened and he gently dried her tears. "What happened?"

"Andy..." Prue replied, "He's dying and I can't do anything for him..."

"Have you tried speaking to Nigel?" Godfrey asked.

"He told me that the Elders won't do anything about it." Prue replied, sniffling.

"I'm sorry about Andy." Godfrey replied, "I know he and I have had our differences, but for what it's worth..."

"I couldn't have asked for a better friend than you, Godfrey." Prue replied.

"I'm glad I could help." Godfrey replied. _A friend is what she needs right now. Calm the hell down!_

"It just hurts so much, to know the Elders won't help him." Prue replied, "And to lose him again. You'd think it wouldn't hurt as badly as the first..."

"Prue," Godfrey replied, "For what its worth, to feel makes us human, even if it does hurt to do so occasionally."

"Did you make that up?" Prue asked.

"No, it's an old Welsh saying." Godfrey replied.

"Next thing you know, you're going to say 'To be or not to be' is also Welsh." Prue replied. _Alan Godfrey, how do you manage to get a smile out of me no matter what state I'm in?_

"You forget I'm half English as well." Godfrey replied.

"Before we get too far off topic, I shouldn't have gotten so upset with Andy." Prue replied.

"You just found out some distressing news, its perfectly natural to be upset." Godfrey replied.

"I just hurt Andy when I left the room..." Prue replied.

"He'll forgive you. It would be best that you patched things up between each other, if I may." Godfrey replied.

"You're right." Prue replied, "We have to patch things up. I love him and we have to patch things up."

* * *

Victor Garibaldi heard more grumbled complaints from two other Italians of his Bersaglieri unit. For his part, he agreed. They shouldn't be out here chasing a fat bearded dreamer. He believed they should be in North Africa or any front where Italian soldiers were giving their lives.

Sergeant Lorenzo Capiari trotted alongside his long limbed officer and said, "Sir, the last patrol has finished searching the woodland sector. So far nothing."

"Tell first squad and half of second squad to stay out there. Let the other half of second squad and third rest for a few hours." Garibaldi replied.

"Yes sir." Capiari replied, his short, stocky form disappearing into the night.

A German **Hauptmann** approached just then, demanding, "Why is half your platoon leaving, lieutenant?"

"I sent them back to the barracks for some rest, and that they may shore up security. Rumor has it that Allied Intelligence might just be planning an operation in our pavilions." Garibaldi replied.

"The Dreamfinder's capture is the top priority." The German replied.

"Sir, my men are exhausted from these numerous search operations plus patrols. I have assigned some to rest, so that they may have fresher eyes than their peers." Garibaldi replied.

"No wonder we never succeed with Italians on any front. We Germans are far tougher..."

The German captain walked off and Garibaldi scowled at the arrogance of his own allies. Yes, his own forces had suffered their share of defeats, but that wasn't the fault of the individual soldiers as this condescending, arrogant ass was implying. That was more the fault of the officers, who rarely if ever ventured from their bunkers to accompany their men into an operation.

"We need all the men we can, because Imhotep has declared that we must find the Dreamfinder before the crew of the _Morrowind." _The German replied.

"Yes sir." Garibaldi replied. _The last time I checked Germans complained too._

The Dreamfinder could hear them coming closer and closer. He crept low in the drainage ditch, a glimmer of hope befalling him. The _Morrowind_? His old friend Kolopak and his crew with its new additions? He hid until the grumbling Italians walked by. He had to make contact with the Morrowind's crew.

* * *

"Why bother with holding that pathetic Neutrality Pact?" Oogie Boogie protested, "We need to capture the Dreamfinder."

"Why a fat and bearded Dreamer is that important anyway is beyond me." Jafar replied, "We have more than enough magic on our side."

"The Dreamfinder's power is to inspire the Imagination." Oogie Boogie replied, "And maybe he could inspire a way for us to try and stop the Keyblade Wielder and the Charmed One. By inspiring our imaginations and make us grow more powerful."

"That may be true." Jafar replied, glaring at Imhotep, "But that's not going to be possible if we don't have him."

"If somebody would use Heartless instead of relying solely on the human allies we have..." Oogie Boogie added.

Imhotep glared back at both of his colleagues, "If we violate that world's neutrality, there could be consequences."

"Pagh!" Jafar replied, "We are powerful enough as is..."

"Silence, all of you." Maleficent said.

"The Source has grown rather impatient. He wants our help." Oogie Boogie began.

"FOOL!" Maleficent said, "You have been consulting with the Source without my permission."

"If we can add his army of demons to our force we will be unstoppable!" Oogie Boogie replied.

"And after we take these worlds," Maleficent added, "With the help of the Source, what do you thing will become of us?"

Before any of the villains could answer, Maleficent continued, "The Source does not like to share power. If we align with him he will kill us all and bring the Heartless under his sway."

"_We _control the Heartless!" Oogie Boogie replied, "We could summon swarms that can overrun him and his closest followers. His lower level demons will be ours!"

"The Heartless consume the careless, Oogie Boogie, take care to remember that." Imhotep interjected.

"Is that why you're unwilling to use them in EPCOT!" Jafar sneered, "I thought it was just because you're led about by your little wench Anck-su-namun..."

At this Imhotep used his power of telekinesis to fling Jafar's staff into his chin. "Speak of my love in that way again, and I assure you the loss of your teeth will be the least of your worries!"

Jafar launched a force bolt at Imhotep that slammed him against the wall. "ENOUGH!" Maleficent roared angrily, "Divided against each other makes us vulnerable!"

"He is right." Maleficent began.

"So if we overuse the Heartless we in turn will be consumed." Imhotep replied, and glaring at Oogie Boogie, "And if some of us get impatient and confer with the Source before we are ready to try and take on the Power of Three, we will be destroyed."

"We must stall for time yet make sure the Source is appeased." Maleficent finally said.

"What of the Charmed One? Prue Halliwell is a problem now that she has teamed up with Sora." Jafar replied.

"She is of no concern." Maleficent said, "The death of her beloved Andy will paralyze and destroy her."

"Can you be sure." Imhotep replied, "Why not simply destroy her directly?"

"She is a Charmed One. Other forces of good will intervene." Maleficent replied, "Andy's death devastated her to begin with. He is her greatest weakness."

"But we're not sure how or even if that will be the case." Imhotep replied.

"You of all people know what power love for another can have. Or how vulnerable it can make you." Maleficent said, "Prue is vulnerable just due to her love for Andy. Just give it less than nine days and she will no longer be a thorn in our side."

A loud screech filled the unknown room. And a banshee appeared in the room, "Compliments of the Source." A voice added.

"Who are you?" Imhotep demanded.

"I am Shax, and I thought I destroyed this particular witch."

"You did." Maleficent replied, "The Elders reincarnated her to be a thorn in our side."

"It is no matter." Shax replied, and indicated the banshee, "She will home in on the pain when the time is right."

"I thought they had vanquished you." Imhotep replied, "Shortly after their half-sister Paige joined them and reconstituted the Power of Three."

"Maleficent rescued me from that hellhole dimension where all vanquished demons are exiled." Shax replied, "I thirst for vengeance."

"On who's side are you?" Jafar sneered suspiciously.

"I have little love of the Source." Shax replied, "I was used and vanquished, not properly supported by the Source or forewarned about this new Power of Three."

"I don't trust you." Jafar replied.

"I trust no one..." Shax replied.

"Good enough for me." Jafar replied.

* * *

Nigel orbed into the Manor's living room. "Leo?" Piper said, looking up from her book and a cup of tea in the evening time.

"Sorry my dear, wrong Whitelighter." Nigel replied.

"Apparently." Piper replied, "Unless Leo grew six inches, got silver hair and a mustache and dresses like an old Englishman with a walking cane."

"What are you doing here?" Piper asked.

"There's a bit of a problem developing." Nigel replied.

And then another Whitelighter orbed into the room. "Leo." Piper said, throwing her arms around her husband.

"Nigel, what are you doing here?" Leo asked, as he returned Piper's embrace.

"Prue," Nigel replied, "She'll need your support, now more than ever."

"What's happening to Prue?" Leo asked.

"Remember how Prue told you that Andy was brought back?" Nigel replied.

"Yes?" Piper replied, "And what does that have to do with why Prue needs help?"

"My dear, let me finish." Nigel replied, "The Necromancy spells create two types of clones when a soul is stolen. There is a Type A that lives for 100 years, and a Type B that lives for two weeks."

"OK, so Andy's a Type B clone?" Piper replied, just as Phoebe walked into the room.

"Rewind please?" Phoebe asked.

"Andy's lifespan is only two weeks." Piper replied.

"Prue is going to be devastated." Phoebe replied.

"So why would Maleficent bring Andy back in the first place?" Phoebe asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nigel asked, "Prue was at her most vulnerable when Andy died."

"How can we help her?" Piper asked.

"By being as supportive of her as possible." Nigel replied, "Sadly you've got other concerns here."

"I'll call Paige." Phoebe began and headed into the kitchen.

"Leo," Piper said, "I feel so helpless. I mean why can't we go over there and teach Maleficent a lesson."

"You're needed here. Because when, not if, the Heartless come, your importance can't ben measured." Leo replied.

"But what about Prue?" Piper asked.

"When she astral projects over here, you'll know what to do." Leo replied.

Phoebe walked in just then, "Paige will be here in an hour. I filled her in on everything."

"Good." Piper replied.

"I'd best be going..." Nigel replied, and orbed away.

Just then, Prue astral projected into the living room. Her face was still red, from crying, and obviously she was in pain.

Piper and Phoebe raced over to their sister and promptly threw their arms around her. "Prue, we heard..." Piper began.

"I can't believe he didn't tell me sooner." Prue sobbed.

"He was scared, Prue." Piper replied, "Or he didn't believe it."

"I can't believe I'm going to lose him again. And the Elders won't do anything about it..." Prue began, wiping tears away.

"We're here for you," Phoebe said, "No matter what. And from what you say of your friends on the _Morrowind_, they're crazy but they're a loyal bunch."

"I wish we could do something for you, or say something to make this stop hurting," Piper began, remembering how badly Andy's death had affected Prue.

"But we'll always be there for you." Phoebe added. The three sisters held each other until Prue astral projected back into her body.

* * *

TBC

**Hauptmann** - German for captain.

**Weimar Republic – **Germany's post WWI democratic government before the Nazi party took over.


	4. Rescuing the Dreamfinder

Rescuing the Dreamfinder

Disclaimer: Same as before...

* * *

"You're up late, again, Godfrey." Doc observed.

"I might say the same of you, mate." Godfrey replied.

"I just had to inventory that new stock of quinine Prue was kind enough to get for me while D'Artagnan got us into that holding cell." Doc replied, "Which begs the question, why are you awake? And quit trying to act like a Spartan with a fox under his cloak."

"Prue just had a discussion with Andy." Godfrey replied, "And what happened was he told her he only has nine days to live?"

"What do you mean by that?" Doc asked.

"I'm saying the magic that created Andy can create one of two beings. One that lives for 100 years and another that lives for 2 weeks." Godfrey replied, "Andy is one of the former."

"And I take it he just told Prue?" Doc replied.

"Exactly." Godfrey replied.

"Where is she right now?" Doc asked.

"I'd check her quarters." Godfrey replied.

"I might need to check up on her." Doc replied.

"I'll go with you." Godfrey replied, at Doc's stare he added, "As a friend."

"Which brings up my question, where's Andy?" Doc asked.

"Likely with Prue." Godfrey replied.

The two men walked for Prue's door and knocked. They heard a sniffle and a, "Come in..."

Prue answered the door, still somewhat bleary eyed. "Sorry to bug you, but Godfrey told me what happened and as your doctor and your friend I wanted to check on you." Doc began.

"I'm OK..." Prue began.

"If I may," Doc replied, "You look like Hell."

"What do you expect?" Prue snapped, "My boyfriend is going to die, _again! _And what's worse is that I can't find him anywhere."

At this Prue sobbed, "I'm sorry..."

"It's alright." Doc said, gently.

"We're here for you. "Godfrey replied, "And that's a promise...We're your friends."

"Look, that's so sweet of you, but I really want to be alone." Prue replied, closing the door.

"This is serious. Andy's gone missing." Godfrey replied, "I'm going to go look for him."

"Not alone you aren't." Doc replied.

"We need to find him." Godfrey replied, "Not just for Prue's peace of mind, damn it. We've got a crew member missing, and for all we know something supernatural could be involved."

"And if you run across something supernatural, Godfrey," Doc replied, "You're likely to get yourself killed."

"I'll go wake up Sora, Donald, and Goofy, you might need their help. Prue's in no state to take on something supernatural right now." Doc replied, "I'll tell Kolopak and put the ship on alert."

"Right. I'll be waiting, presently." Godfrey replied.

After Prue closed the door and went back to her bed, lay down and clutched at her other pillow, tears in her eyes. Andy had just disappeared. Where the hell was he?

She heard another knock on the door, she didn't move to open it. "Prue, its Godfrey. I just wanted to tell you, I'm going to search for Andy with Sora, Goofy, and Donald. We'll find him, I promise..."

"Hang on, I'm coming with you..." Prue shouted, brushing a stray hair lock from her face and running for the door.

"Like hell you are." Godfrey replied when she opened the door.

"If magical forces took Andy you will need my help." Prue replied.

"And if magical forces are in fact involved, I'll be damned before I let you out there in the state you're in." Godfrey replied.

"Godfrey..." Prue began.

"No arguments. Donald, Sora, and Goofy are along." Godfrey replied, "You haven't slept well, you're emotionally distraught, you're..."

"A liability..." Prue replied, "Go ahead and say it."

"That wasn't what I was about to say." Godfrey replied, "I was saying you could get hurt."

"And you couldn't?" Prue questioned.

"Look, you're in a bad state after your argument with Andy. You might not be at your best, if we get attacked you could get hurt." Godfrey replied.

"Godfrey, for crying out loud!" Prue replied.

Just then Donald walked into the hallway with Goofy. "Look, if we have any close encounters of the magical variety I've got help." Godfrey replied.

"You're cutting me out of this?" Prue demanded.

"Prue, this is for your own good." Godfrey argued.

"You're starting to act like Roger..." Prue remarked.

Godfrey knew who she was referring to from chats they'd had, "Do I look like I'm yanking something important opportunity away from you?"

"Well, it looks like it to me." Prue replied, forgetting anything about indoor voices.

"Guys..." Goofy said.

"Prue, this is for your own good. You're in a bad way right now." Godfrey replied.

"You're starting to sound like a broken record." Prue replied.

"For the love of God..." Godfrey replied.

"Broken record." Prue snapped back.

"GUYS!" Goofy shouted, waving his arms, accidentally bashing Donald in the head with his round shield.

"Wuh...wuh...wuh..." Donald staggered away.

With the exception of Donald for obvious reasons everyone shut up immediately. "Why are you two yelling at each other?" Goofy asked.

"It's obvious somebody is being pigheaded here." Prue replied.

"Start from the beginning." Goofy replied.

"Well, I went to tell Prue that we were going to go look for Andy." Godfrey replied, "Then she wanted to join our search."

"Whereupon somebody said I'm in no state to go chasing after Andy." Prue replied.

"Don't you think he's right?" Goofy asked, "I mean you're in an emotional state, you're tired as anything..."

"You're starting to sound like Godfrey." Prue replied.

"Maybe it's because he's right." Goofy replied.

"Who's side are you on?" Prue asked.

"There's no sides here, Prue." Goofy replied, "Godfrey was just worried about your safety. We both are."

"You guys going out to fight whatever magical force that probably has Andy and you're leaving me behind." Prue snapped.

"Not fight, search." Godfrey said.

"We're not even sure if anything magical has Andy." Goofy continued, "He might have just gone out for a walk to do some thinking."

"Still it would be a bad idea to leave me behind." Prue replied.

"Prue," Goofy explained, "Godfrey made that call because he cares about you."

Goofy felt like he had said too much when he saw Godfrey's withering stare. Prue hadn't noticed, as she was focused on Goofy.

"As a friend..." Goofy hastily added, Godfrey's glare implied he was angry enough to beat the stuffing out of him.

"Let me know if you find him, OK?" Prue asked.

Godfrey nodded his acknowledgment and the group consisting of himself, Goofy, Sora, and Donald disembarked, leaving Prue standing there in wonder. _Just what did Goofy mean by that? _Prue thought. _Note to self, ask Goofy what he meant by that? _

* * *

Andy watched as the crowd thinned out, as the last tourists were leaving EPCOT. He glanced at the full moon's light gleamed with the lights of the park over the World Showcase lagoon. So many little things he saw he started to appreciate. The feel of Prue's skin against his own, the scent of the fragrance she'd choose to wear, the sight of the moonlight on the lake. So much he would miss when he died again.

_You'd think having died the first time, I'd be used to it by now. _Andy thought. _I gotta get back to get to Prue and talk to her._

_Yeah you were quite the jackass for not telling her sooner. Did you see how hurt she looked? I wonder if Kolopak's sent a search party to look for me..._

"Your dreams are conflicted my friend." came a voice from behind Andy.

Andy spun round and noticed a portly fellow in a worn out top hat and a worn brown suit in the style of a century earlier.

"You dream that your beloved will be able to move on after you die, yet you don't want to die." Dreamfinder said.

Andy was perplexed, "How the hell do..."

"...I know what's going on inside your head?" Dreamfinder replied, "I am aware of dreams and imaginings of any being in existence. You included, Andy Trudeau..."

_OK, if I can accept a walking talking duck, a walking talking a dog, the existence of demons and witches, what's so hard about a harmless old bearded guy who knows what I'm dreaming about. _Andy thought.

"And I know that you're worried about your goodbyes, after all you only have eight days left to live." Dreamfinder replied.

"What do you want? Who are you?" Andy asked.

"I'm the Dreamfinder. This..." The Dreamfinder replied, gesturing out at EPCOT, "Was my dream made real."

"OK, that's interesting, but how do you know what I dream?" Andy asked.

"I already said that I know the dreams of all living beings." Dreamfinder replied, at Andy's disbelief he added, "If you can accept your girlfriend is a good witch, why can't you accept the fact that you're in the presence of someone who has dominion over the realm of human imagination. It's a realm that is limitless..."

Neither man heard the high pitched shriek or noticed the creature, pale as though drained entirely of blood with perfectly snow white hair bearing down on them...

* * *

"Goofy," Godfrey asked as they entered the park, "Might I ask what the hell you were doing earlier?"

"What was I doing earlier?" Goofy asked, "Oh, you mean what I told Prue..."

"Yes." Godfrey remarked.

"Well I was telling the truth, you do care for Prue." Goofy replied.

"That is the case," Godfrey replied, "But I was certain you understood why I wanted to keep this quiet."

"I understand, but don't necessarily agree." Goofy replied, "If you and Prue's friendship is as strong as I think it is, then it can survive the fact that you're attracted to her."

"Likely she's not going to speak to me again." Godfrey replied.

"And besides I meant you cared for her as a friend." Goofy replied, "Which is true."

"She could misinterpret that." Godfrey snapped.

"And would that be so bad?" Donald remarked.

"Well there is a factor named Andy in this equation..." Godfrey remarked.

"Will you two quit arguing about this!" Donald shouted, flapping his arms wildly, "You two can argue about the merits of Godfrey's platonic friendship with Prue until you're blue in the face later..."

Before anyone could reply, Goofy said, "Guys, I think Donald's right. Did you hear that?"

"No." Godfrey replied, curiously, and drawing his revolver.

"I didn't hear anything." Sora replied.

"What did you hear?" Donald asked.

"A high pitched shriek." Goofy had said.

"A banshee." Godfrey replied.

"How do you know?" Donald asked.

"First of all, one of the chaps in the Mayapore Constabulary was an Irishman who told tales of the banshee to pass night shifts in the radio room to the others." Godfrey replied, "And then Prue told me stories about her encounter with the Banshee."

"OK, I'll bite..." Sora said.

"No pun intended." Godfrey replied.

"Anyway," Sora replied, "What did Prue tell you about Banshees?"

"And why does Goofy hear it while we don't?" Donald asked.

"Remember how Prue said that she got turned into a dog to track down the Banshee?" Godfrey asked.

"Vaguely." Donald replied.

"Goofy is a dog, technically, so he can hear the Banshee's hunting call." Godfrey replied.

"Good," Sora quipped, "I'm not about to get turned into a dog to hunt this thing down."

"I had the perfect collar for you there, damn." Godfrey remarked.

"Funny." Sora replied.

The search party followed Goofy just in time to see the Banshee come swooping down towards Andy. "Oh thank God!" Dreamfinder shouted when he saw Godfrey, Sora, Donald, and Goofy running towards them.

Just as they approached Shax appeared and a gust of wind lifted the Dreamfinder into the air. "Uh oh..." Sora groaned.

"Who the hell?" Godfrey remarked.

Andy covered his eyes as the Banshee practically stood toe to toe with him and shrieked a defeaningly loud cry. Godfrey aimed for the Banshee and fired two shots, both struck the Banshee dead center in the chest.

"Godfrey, bullets don't hurt demons." Sora began.

"What the hell do you expect me to do, mate?" Godfrey snapped.

"Argue later!" Donald shouted, "Fire!"

Donald aimed his staff at Shax and launched a fireball at the demon. Shax launched an airburst into the fireball. Donald dived out of the way.

Godfrey tried to shoot Shax with his third bullet, but the demon launched a wind gust into him, sending him flying into the lake. Godfrey treaded water for a few moments before he swam back towards shore, thankful that he'd had the foresight to put a lanyard onto the handle of his revolver.

"When will you learn, human, that your weapon has no effect on me..." Shax shouted.

"Thunder!" Donald shouted, and Shax shook violently as a lightning bolt zapped current through him.

"AARRRAGGGGGHH!" Shax screamed.

Sora leaped towards Shax, swinging the Keyblade in an arc. Shax recovered quickly enough to launch a gust of wind into Sora and send him flying into the pond.

Goofy tried to whack the Banshee with his shield but the creature turned towards him and sent an ear piercing shriek at him. Goofy covered his ears, as he was particularly sensitive to the Banshee's high pitched scream.

"Sora, use your magic!" Donald shouted.

"I don't _have _magic!" Sora shouted.

"You wield the Keyblade! Of course you have magic." Donald shouted, "Think of the Banshee on fire..."

Sora pointed the Keyblade at the Banshee and shouted, "Fire!"

The fireball struck the Banshee who shrieked in pain as its cloak caught fire. The creature dove into the Lagoon where Godfrey shoved its head underwater, attempting to drown it. She sank her teeth into his forearm and surfaced and hovered in the air.

"Thunder!" Donald shouted.

Shax used a gust of wind to send the thunder back to Donald, shocking him. "WWAAAAAAKKKK!" Donald shouted.

"Fire!" Sora shouted, and hit Shax with a fireball.

Shax launched a gust of gale force winds, intending to lift the Dreamfinder into the air. Andy realized then, that if the Dreamfinder knew and inspired the dreams of the good, he could do the same for evil if forced to do so. He sprinted forward and shoved the Dreamfinder out of the way feeling like his stomach was about to lift itself into his chest cavity as the gust of wind lifted him high into the air.

"Damn..." Shax growled, as he and the Banshee flew up into the air, taking Andy with them. "Send this message to your leader, Kolopak, and the witch. If they wish to see him alive, bring the Dreamfinder here to the Lagoon at midnight tomorrow."

* * *

Prue watched the group approach, and they all looked like they'd been in a fierce fight. Godfrey was soaked with water from the Lagoon, his forearm trickling blood to the grass of the airfield. There was no sign of Andy, only the Dreamfinder.

She raced down the gangplank, asking, "Where's Andy...?"

"Shax took him." Donald replied.

"He's still alive." Dreamfinder intervened, "And he will remain so, in exchange for me..."

Kolopak came down the gangplank behind Prue, "That is unacceptable."

"Is it?" Prue replied.

"Yes. We can't let the villains have the Dreamfinder to inspire their imaginations." Kolopak replied, "And now that they have the demon that killed you on their side..."

"And you're willing to sacrifice Andy?" Prue replied.

"If need be, yes." Kolopak replied, "Would you rather evil be inspired?"

"Wait," Godfrey said, as he turned to the Dreamfinder, "You can create illusions to protect yourself, right?"

"Yes..."

"I may have an idea." Godfrey replied.

"Upper level demons like Shax and the Banshee can see through my illusions." Dreamfinder replied.

"Godfrey, what's on your mind?" Kolopak replied.

"Give me a few hours." Godfrey replied.

"If you don't have an idea by ten o'clock tomorrow night, one that I can approve of, we'll have no choice." Kolopak replied.

"I'll get him back." Godfrey replied, a determined stare on his face as he walked onto the ship.

"Thank you..." Prue said, as he walked by.

Godfrey nodded his acknowledgment before he headed over to the lounge. Dreamfinder trotted alongside him, as fast as his shorter legs could keep up with Godfrey's longer strides.

"You helped dreamers make things happen, right?" Godfrey asked.

"Why, Mr. Godfrey, who do you think helped Archimedes defend Syracuse?" Dreamfinder replied, "Who do you think helped him design the claw, the interlocking fields of fire, the big mirrors that harnessed the energy of the sun, and other defenses that helped Syracuse repel Roman besiegers for two years? You admire the ancient Greeks for their cleverness, and I helped inspire them..."

"Point made," Godfrey replied, "But I want to know if you can help me help you?"

"I will." The Dreamfinder replied, "Just what is it you plan to do?"

"I plan to give Shax what it is he wants...and then yank it away, together with Andy." Godfrey replied, "Though how I intend to do it..."

"What?" Dreamfinder asked.

"Go find Vinny, I'm gonna need a few of his inventions for this..." Godfrey replied.

"Vinny?" Dreamfinder asked, "Ah, your Italian inventor who fancies himself an Archimedes of explosive devices..."

"Vinny is a lot of things, but Archimedes is not one of them." Godfrey remarked.

BOOM! Just then an explosion sounded down the hall and Vinny came out of the kitchen covered in soot and ash, and smelling faintly of canned spinach.

"Eureka! I've found it! The perfect detonator for the Spinach can grenades!" Vinny shouted as he ran down the hallway.

Dreamfinder smiled, "Point made."

"Eureka I've, uh oh..." Vinny said.

"Yeh stinkin' varmint!" Cookie shouted, "That was for my Spinach Casserole!"

"HELP! OW! OW! OW! OW!" Vinny screamed as Cookie beat him with the spatula in his hands.

"Listen, lads!" Godfrey shouted into the hallway, "You can kill each other later, but I'm going to need your help. Vinny, feel free to let this guy help your creative juices run wild..."

A wide grin spread across Vinny's face, "Boom."

* * *

"You brought us the wrong person, Shax." Jafar began, angrily.

"I made an ultimatum to the Morrowind's crew." Shax replied, "The Dreamfinder must be turned over, or he dies."

Shax pointed at Andy, who was surrounded by a whirling vortex of wind on all sides.

"You might have incited the wrath of the witch." Jafar warned.

"Hey, he killed her before, he'll kill her again and make it permanent this time." Hades replied, "Not to mention he's the witch's weakness."

"What was your ultimatum?" Oogie Boogie asked.

"Bring him to the World Showcase Lagoon at midnight tomorrow or he dies." Shax replied.

"Some ally." Jafar grumbled. He was lifted off his feet by gale force winds and slammed into the ceiling.

"Care to repeat that." Shax replied, "Now, my colleague here is a bit annoyed at being denied her nightly feeding."

Shax indicated the Banshee as he spoke, "However, if we can lure Prue to this meeting, the Banshee can turn her into one of our own with her scream. She has enough pain to sate the Banshee's hunger for a week..."

"If we turn her to our side, no more Charmed One to oppose us." Hades said, "Nice scheme, brother..."

"Perfect, if the Source decides to turn on us." Jafar said, "How can we be certain the Source hasn't sent you to kill us all."

"You have my word. I am no friend of the Source since the Halliwell sisters vanquished me with their reconstituted Power of Three." Shax replied, but even as he spoke, he had no intention of allowing this motely assortment of villains to live. As soon as the witch was transformed into a Banshee, the Source had a legion of demons ready to destroy these upstarts and utilize the power of the Heartless for himself...

* * *

TBC... 


	5. The Changing Face of Evil

The Changing Face of Evil

Disclaimer: Same as before…

AN: Sorry this was two weeks late. Between dental surgery and a case of writer's block updating this one was a wee bit difficult.

* * *

"Godfrey, what's this plan of yours?" Prue asked, as she spotted him walking down the hallway with a clipboard under his arms.

"I'll get him back, Prue, don't worry." Godfrey replied, "And I'll explain the plan after I fine tune a couple details."

BOOM! "Was that one of them?" Prue asked, as Cookie and Vinny staggered out of the kitchen, covered in fruit pulp and smelling more than faintly of smoke.

"Sort of." Godfrey replied, "I never figured crab apples would make such a mess when they explode."

"Crab apples? Explode?" Prue asked.

"Don't ask." Godfrey replied, "Let's just say Shax is going to get a blinding flash out of the deal."

"Good." Prue replied, and Godfrey touched her shoulder, pulling her back.

"Careful." Godfrey replied, "Vinny's been hard at work all last night around this part of the ship."

"So that's what all that racket was." Prue replied.

As they stood, talking, Goofy came walking by. "Hey guys, how's it go-AGGGHH!" Goofy began.

Goofy was suddenly propelled into the air by a massive, spring-loaded contraption that launched him into the air and halfway through the ceiling. They heard a woman's scream from upstairs, followed by a loud curse and the sound of fists striking flesh.

"Who's room is up there again?" Prue asked.

"I believe that's Audrey's room." Godfrey replied as Goofy fell from the ceiling and staggered away.

"Gawrsh, Audrey's got a mean 1-2 combo…" Goofy slurred before he fell to the ground like a pole-axed mule.

"Let me guess," Prue asked, "You've granted Vinny free reign to test his experiments."

"There could potentially be something useful in them." Godfrey replied, as he flicked a lighter from his pocket.

"Just what are you planning?" Prue asked.

"A way to get Andy back." Godfrey replied.

"And just how are you planning to do that?" Prue asked.

"That, my dear," Godfrey replied, grinning enigmatically, "Would be akin to Archimedes telling Marcellus how he designed the defenses of Syracuse."

D'Artagnan arrived with a duffel bag on his shoulder. "I traded with a couple members of the Free French Combat engineering unit for some uniforms."

"Good, get Vinny and relieve that work crew near the exchange site." Godfrey ordered.

"OK," Prue began, "So there's something to do with launching people into the air as well?"

"Exactly." Godfrey replied.

"I think my sisters might have faced Shax, so I'm going to have to go look up the vanquish if any." Prue replied.

"But you've stated your astral projections to the Manor only work when you fall asleep." Godfrey replied, perplexed.

"I know. We need to find Doc." Prue began.

"What could Doc possibly know about astral projection?" Godfrey asked.

"Nothing." Prue replied, "I'm going to need a sedative."

"Are you insane?" Godfrey replied, as Prue headed over to the Infirmary, moving with a purpose.

"I can't astral project to the Manor at will yet, so if Doc sedates me I'll be astral projecting in no time." Prue replied.

The two of them headed for the Infirmary. "Doc, I have a request for you."

Doc turned, "And that would be?"

"Sedate me." Prue replied.

"Two questions: What and why?" Doc asked.

"My sisters may have faced one of the demons we'll be facing tonight. I want to ask them about the vanquish for Shax." Prue replied.

"Why do you need to be sedated?" Doc asked.

"I can't astral project to my world at will." Prue replied, "Usually I'm asleep when that happens. But since I just had my coffee I'm not likely to fall asleep for hours."

Doc sighed, "Prue, for the record, I think you're crazy."

Doc took a needle from the nearby cabinet and put a light sedative into it. "We'll still be able to wake you up, you'll just be a bit groggy."

Doc eyed his patient chart, he performed complete physicals on every crew member that came aboard the Morrowind. He noted Prue's weight, quickly adjusted the sedative dosage and motioned for her to lie down on the examination tabe.

"Can't you have Donald hypnotize you or something?" Doc asked.

"Donald's busy with something else." Godfrey answered, "Namely concocting a potion that will make every bullet on this ship capable of causing at least some magical damage, in case more of the demons from your world start appearing."

Doc sighed and injected Prue's left arm with the sedative. "Stare at the ceiling…"

Prue complied, and felt first her peripheral vision start to fade and go hazy, then her vision went completely black.

* * *

Piper walked into the bathroom, clad only in Leo's bathrobe. She could smell the scent of him still on it, and couldn't help but smile just a little bit. She heard an unexpected shriek from the shower, which she had turned on to let the water heat up.

Piper turned just in time to see Prue standing in the shower totally drenched from head to toe. "Prue? What are you doing here?" Piper asked, just slightly annoyed.

"I needed to ask you guys a question. Are Phoebe and Paige around?" Prue asked.

"Phoebe's at karate practice, and Paige is at the movies with some friends." Piper replied, "Can you wait a second?"

"Sure." Prue replied, and stepped out of the bathroom. As Piper showered, Prue walked around the upstairs for a bit. She hadn't lived her for a long time, and it was strange to know that Paige now occupied her room.

Piper finished showering, headed to her room, and changed her clothes and headed over to Prue. "How do you vanquish Shax?" Prue asked.

Piper stopped in her tracks. "Prue, you need the power of three to vanquish Shax." Piper replied.

"I have a plan…" Prue replied.

"That you have no idea will work." Piper countered.

"Since when have you started to sound like Natalie." Prue replied.

"Since we lost you." Piper said, feeling tears forming. Prue instintively hugged her sister, who returned the embrace.

"Piper, you won't lose me again." Prue replied, "I'll visit every chance I get."

"It's just not the same as having you around." Piper replied, "Please be careful."

"I will. And I do have my crewmates on the _Morrowind _to back me up." Prue replied, "With whatever Godfrey's got up his sleeve, we should be alright."

"I've heard you mention him a couple of times in your letters." Piper asked, as they walked up to the attic, "Who is he again?"

"He's the British policeman." Prue replied.

"The guy who beat up Kumar?" Piper asked, wrinkling her nose.

"No," Prue replied, "That was Merrick. Godfrey stood up to him and got Kumar proper medical attention."

"Let me guess, he's one of those old, donut eating guys of forty we see around the precinct…" Piper began.

"No." Prue began, "He's about thirty-two, on the lean, athletic side, with black hair that's a bit on the tousled side."

"Sounds like your type of guy." Piper teased lightly.

"No!" Prue reddened, "He's just a really good friend. Besides I'm with Andy."

"If you were single?" Piper asked.

"Maybe." Prue replied. _Oops. _"But that was a maybe, Piper…"

"Easy," Piper replied, with a toothy grin, "I was only joking, Prue."

Piper opened the Book of Shadows and wrote down the spell to vanquish Shax on a piece of paper, handing it over to Prue. Prue folded it and stuck it into a pocket. Prue began to feel the familiar sensation of returning to her own body.

* * *

Prue felt herself awaken in the _Morrowind's _Infirmary. Doc helped her sit up and she noticed Donald in the room. "So you guys ran into a banshee?" Doc asked.

"Yeah." Donald replied.

Prue blinked her eyes and Doc asked, "Prue, you've run across Banshees before, right?"

"Yeah, I know the tracking spell." Prue replied, "And I'd rather not be turned into a dog to track it again."

"Relax." Doc replied, "From what Donald was telling me, Goofy can track the banshee."

"Good." Prue replied, "I'd rather not be able to smell everything and everything, or wind up with fleas."

"I have fur, not fleece. A-hyuck." Goofy replied, "I'm not a sheep."

"That's fleas, Goofy, not _fleece!_" Donald shouted, jumping up and down.

"Donald, quit jumping around, you might…" Doc began. Just then a tray of needles and other objects fell on the floor, "…spill something."

Donald's webbed foot stepped on a needle just then. "WAAAKKK!" Donald shouted, jumping into the air and then landing butt first onto a broken bottle, "OUCH!"

"For a wizard you're not a very careful guy." Prue observed.

Donald walked over to the nearest wall. "Oh no…" Prue groaned.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"One…two…three…four…five…" Goofy counted.

"What are you doing?" Prue asked.

"A-hyuck, counting the number of times it takes Donald to knock himself out." Goofy replied, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You _count _the number of times Donald bashes his head into walls when he gets frustrated?" Prue asked.

"A-hyuck, in the court we used to have a pool about the number of whacks it would take Donald to knock himself unconscious." Goofy replied.

"You guys are so weird." Prue observed.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Donald continued to beat his head into the wall and Goofy kept counting numbers off of his fingered hand, "Six…seven…eight…nine…ten…"

"Donald! Knock it off!" Prue began, "Before you give yourself a concussion."

"Ah-hyuck, I think if he makes it to fifteen, D'Artagnan is gonna win the pool." Goofy began.

"What pool?" Prue asked, "You started a betting pool on this ship? My friend, you're destroying a couple childhood illusions."

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Eleven…twelve…thirteen…fourteen…fifteen…" Goofy counted, "Darn it looks like D'Artagnan won the pool…"

Just then the ventilation duct cover over his head fell and hit Donald on the head. This was quickly followed by a wrench, a hammer, a screw driver, and a tape measure. In short order Audrey's tool box landed squarely atop Donald's head.

CRASH! SMASH! WHUMP! BASH! CLANG!

Donald staggered away like a drunk down the corridor. "Wuh…wuh…wuh…" Donald groaned.

His foot stepped heavily onto one of the spring loaded tiles that Vinny had put into the floor which launched him through the ceiling.

BOOOIIIIIINNNG! CRASH!

"What happened now?" Audrey said, poking her head out of the air duct.

"Donald just had another nervous breakdown." Prue said in a very matter of fact tone.

"_Loco." _Audrey remarked, "Now I've got more repairs on the air conditioning duct. I hope Kolopak likes it hot, because the AC will probably take another day to fix…"

"Let me help." Prue replied.

"You're a mechanic?" Audrey asked.

"No," Prue replied, "I was a photographer after I was a museum curator, but in my college days I did my share of impromptu fixing of things. Plus I helped fix the Manor a lot before Leo came into our lives?"

"Leo?" Audrey asked.

"He was our handyman, and we later found out he was our Whitelighter. Long story." Prue replied.

"Will someone get me down from here please…" Donald croaked as he realized he was stuck in the AC duct.

"Donald, suck in your gut…" Prue began.

"I am _not _that fat…" Donald protested.

"You have been putting on a few pounds lately…" Goofy added.

"When I get down there Goofy, I'm turning you into a mushroom." Donald grumbled.

"On three." Prue began, "One…two…three…"

Prue pushed telekinetically, pushing Donald through the hole in the ceiling. "Donald, lay off on the pastries for a week will you…" Prue complained.

"You need to flex your telekinetic muscles more." Donald snapped back.

"Trust me, I think I'm 'bench pressing' more than my fair share trying to pull you through that hole!" Prue snapped.

"Let me help." Kida said, cradling Lal as she walked down the hallway, "This might sting a little…"

"I can use all the help I can get." Prue replied.

"I was talking to Donald." Kida replied as she drew a small knife from the waistband of her skirt. She put a stool under Donald's feet, to give him some support and then promptly poked him in the behind with the knife.

"OWWW!" Donald shouted and promptly was propelled both by the spastic muscle reaction and Prue's telekinesis through that hole.

Donald climbed down, using the stool that had been put under his feet with a very sour expression on his face.

Godfrey came walking down the hall, and noticed the big hole in the ceiling and Donald with an icepack on his head. A quizzical expression appeared on Godfrey's face.

"Don't ask." Prue interjected.

"I wasn't going to." Godfrey replied, "I'll be briefing you on what I'm planning in five minutes."

* * *

"Will the witch show up?" Imhotep asked Shax.

"Of course she will, if she wants her lover back." Shax replied, indicating Andy trapped in the vortex of wind, "Are your Heartless in position?"

"The Germans are a dependable people." Imhotep replied, "And your Banshee?"

"She lies in wait. She is eager to feed on the pain of the witch." Shax replied.

"They approach us." Imhotep replied, smiling, "And the Dreamfinder is with them."

"Maleficent will be pleased." Shax agreed, "And I get to finish the Charmed One once and for all."

"First things first…" Imhotep began, when the group was a dozen paces away. "Stop there."

The group from the _Morrowind _stopped. "Hand the Dreamfinder over to us. Now." Imhotep began.

Kolopak nodded, and the Dreamfinder walked towards Imhotep and Shax, flanked by two Waffen-SS soldiers carrying machine pistols.

"Englishman! Keep your hands where we can see them!" Imhotep demanded.

"I simply want a cigarette." Godfrey began.

Imhotep nodded to one of the SS guards escorting the Dreamfinder, who walked back to the group's position. The German soldier aimed his weapon at Godfrey, saying in badly accented English, "No funny business, Englishman."

Godfrey calmly withdrew a cigarette from his pocket, and turned towards Mole. "Pass me a match…"

A cylinder about the size of a soup can flew from the nearby planter in front of the Dreamfinder's face. It exploded, flashing bright light everywhere. The German soldier aiming his weapon at Godfrey turned to look, only to have Godfrey rush him. The two men contested for possession of the German's weapon, a look of focused and utter lack of mercy on the German's face. It was then that the German soldier noticed the same look on Godfrey's face, the same utter lack of mercy, that up till then the Englishman was intent on taking him alive. Godfrey stabbed him in the side with a small knife hidden in his sleeve, then grabbed the German's automatic and finished him off.

The other German was tackled from the side by D'Artagnan, who plunged a knife into his neck before grabbing the Dreamfinder and running.

"Look out Prue!" Goofy shouted as the Banshee came streaking in over the lake, heading straight for Prue.

Simultaneously several Heartless burst from hiding towards the Morrowind's crew. Another blast sounded, and liquid tar came flying everywhere, hitting Shax and entangling him, causing his concentration to break long enough for Andy's wind prison to be dissolved. Andy ran for his life, away from the fighting.

Some of the tar splattered the Banshee as well, but did not plaster her to any surfaces, it only slowed her down. "Fire!" Donald shouted, and aimed his staff at her, flinging a fireball in her direction.

The Banshee let out a final anguished scream as she was consumed by fire. Shax had broken free of the tar by then and sent a gust of wind straight for Prue. Godfrey shoved her out of the way, only to be hit by the same gust himself.

"Godfrey!" Prue shouted. She telekinetically launched a trash can right into Shax, knocking him back a pace. Godfrey hit the ground rather heavily, still clutching the German machine pistol in his hands. A trio of Shadow Heartless jumped on top of him.

A burst of gunfire sounded just then, and the Shadows were practically vaporized by .45 caliber slugs that tore them to shreds. Godfrey rolled over to see D'Artagnan standing there with a Thompson sub machinegun in his hands.

"Trust the French." Godfrey grinned, as he stood shakily. He reloaded a magazine into his weapon, one of the four he managed to take from the Nazi soldier he had killed.

"Where's the Dreamfinder?" Godfrey asked.

"Mole ran him back to the ship." D'Artagnan replied.

Kolopak was shooting at several Heartless with a .45 caliber automatic he had hidden in the waistband of his trousers. Three other Soldier Heartless lay killed around his position.

Prue, Sora, and Donald faced Shax just then, all of them knowing the Power of Three spell they needed to vanquish Shax.

Imhotep saw what was being planned and raised his hand. Goofy saw what was about to happen and charged between Imhotep and the others. Imhotep's power raised Goofy into the air. "Insolent mortal. Prepare to feel every bone in your body…"

A burst of gunfire sounded and Imhotep felt the sensation of bullets tear into his body. He turned to see Godfrey reloading the Schmeisser MP-40 with another magazine. Imhotep reached his splayed out fingers in Godfrey's direction flinging him into a tree.

"_Evil wind that blows, that which forms below. No longer may you dwell, death takes you with this spell." _Prue began.

"Hah! That is Power of Three spell, and you lack sisters to vanquish me. So return to the grave from whence you came, Prue Halliwell." Shax laughed.

Andy flung himself from hiding in a practiced flying tackle into Shax. He knocked the demon to the ground with the surprise. "Prue! Get him now! I'm not sure how long I can hold hi –ACK!"

Andy felt an invisible cord wrap itself around his throat, as Imhotep turned his fury on him. "That was most unwise…"

"_Evil wind that blows, that which forms below. No longer may you dwell, death takes you with this spell." _Donald and Sora joined Prue as they repeated the spell.

"What's happening?" Shax began, "NOOO!"

"ANDY!" Prue shouted.

"Away with you, witch!" Imhotep shouted and flung Prue into the lake.

Godfrey shakily got up and fired another burst of gunfire at Imhotep, who turned to face him only to get whacked in the head by Sora who leapt into the air and swung.

Imhotep fell to the ground, feeling blood from his lip. The Keyblade was certainly a powerful weapon, but he was stronger. Imhotep knew that another hit would weaken him further. It was time to escape and plan again. He opened his mouth and what looked like a giant head with an open mouth came out of the water and washed the heroes away. Imhotep vanquished in a cloud of sand.

"Help! I can't swim!" Prue shouted as she began to sink.

Godfrey dived into the water and within a few strokes he reached her side, wrapping one arm around her waist, pulling her back to the surface. Prue was still panicked and clawing randomly, thrashing a bit before sinking again, dragging Godfrey down.

Godfrey felt water rush into his mouth and kicked to the surface. He had to get Prue some air to calm her down first and he pushed her above the surface. He supported her weight as best he could before he ran out of air and hit the surface.

Prue dug her fingers into Godfrey's arm after he put it around her waist again and started swimming.

"Prue, my arm is not a scratching post." Godfrey replied.

"Sorry." Prue replied.

He swam back towards the edge of the Lagoon where Kolopak and D'Artagnan yanked them both out of the water. "Someone needs swimming lessons…"

"Don't push it." Prue mock glared at Godfrey, "Thank you."

"Much obliged. But do you have some iodine for my arm?" Godfrey asked.

Prue glared at him for real. "Just a bit of humor." Godfrey replied.

Prue went over to Andy who was clutching at his bruised throat. She helped him to his feet and they headed back towards the Morrowind.

* * *

"We lost Shax. A job well done, Imhotep." Jafar spat, contemptuously.

"Shax would likely have involved us with the Source." Imhotep replied, "It was for our greater good."

"Our best chance to get rid of the Charmed One was destroyed, still." Oogie Boogie replied.

"Exactly. Shax was our best chance to destroy Prue Halliwell." Jafar replied.

"It was for our greater good." Imhotep replied, "You know the Source does not like to share power. The Source will find a way to twist us to his own ends."

"Shax said he had no love of the Source." Oogie Boogie fired back.

"Just how much can you trust the Source's chief assassin." Imhotep countered, "I tell you, if the Source gets involved, we will all be under his sway."

"Hah! We can bend him to our will." Oogie Boogie replied.

"Such foolishness, Oogie Boogie. The Source does not like to share power. Partnership with him will result in all of us being demoted to very junior partners." Imhotep replied.

"We should not lose sight of the fact that our best shot at destroying Prue Halliwell was just vanquished." Jafar countered.

"ENOUGH!" Maleficent shouted, "Like it or not, the Source knows of us and our activities. Bickering amongst ourselves will only make his takeover that much easier."

"If someone hadn't lost us our best chance at Prue Halliwell, I wouldn't be so upset." Jafar snapped.

"Jafar, unless you wish that staff of yours to rest in a very uncomfortable place, you will shut your mouth immediately." Imhotep warned.

"Guys. Guys. Guys." Hades began, as he walked into the chamber, "It's alright. It's under control."

"The Source could well be taking us over, you call that under control?" Imhotep shouted.

"And baldy here lost us our best chance at killing Prue Halliwell." Jafar countered.

"Well, we have our insiders." Hades began.

"If you're referring to Andy," Oogie Boogie commented, "He's firmly in their camp, no information to be gained and…"

"Prue will mourn him when he dies." Hades commented.

"And if she doesn't. What then?" Imhotep commented.

"Then I still have everything under control." Hades replied, stepping aside to reveal a man in a hood, wearing a U.S. Army uniform.

"You brought an Allied officer here?" Jafar spat.

"He has much the same agenda as we do." Hades replied, and removed the hood.

Standing before the council of villains was Colonel Lyle Tiberius Rourke.

"What business have you with us?" Imhotep asked.

"I don't this Prue Halliwell any more than you do." Rourke began.

"You wear the uniform of one of the Allied nations. Why should we have any faith in you?" Oogie Boogie demanded.

"I believe the good Colonel has an answer to that." Hades replied, "Some expedition he led."

"I discovered the lost city of Atlantis some years ago, in an expedition with several members of the _Morrowind's_ crew." Rourke replied, "Some of whom you know of: Dr. Joshua Strongbear Sweet, Audrey Rocio Ramirez, Gaetan "Mole" Moliére, Vincenzo "Vinny" Santorini, Jebidiah Allardyce "Cookie" Farnswoth, and Wilhelmina Bertha Packard among them. I discovered a power beyond anything I could imagine, in the princess Kida's kingdom. My team decided to turn good hearted on me and betrayed me."

"They were a bunch of treasure hunters, basically. Among the best. Went through thousands of ancient tombs, and lost civilizations." Hades added, "

Rourke continued, "They thought I had died after they turned on me. No such luck. I found my way to a different world, secured a commission and bided my time. And now that time to get my own back has come. And I believe you can help me…"

"We may have some use for you, Colonel Rourke." Maleficent began, "You do have authority over one member of the _Morrowind._ I believe he is Lieutenant Godfrey. Feed him disinformation and inform us of all that you can regarding the _Morrowind's_ crew. That is your task. Your chance of revenge is at hand."

* * *

TBC 


	6. Meet the Dreamfinder

Meet The Dreamfinder

Disclaimer: Same as before…

RougefanKC – If you think this is chaotic, imagine what will come to pass when Vinny meets Trinity and Forge for the first time (if you'd like to imagine Jake Clawson getting involved too, be my guest)…

* * *

"Vinny, you might not want to mix that portion of chemicals…" Dreamfinder began.

BOOM! A black cloud of smoke flowed out into the hallway, and Prue remarked, "You're worst than my sisters when they're brewing potions…"

"So let me get this straight," Prue asked Donald, after she collared him walking down the hall, "The Dreamfinder's mere presence enhances the imaginations of people nearby."

"Bingo." Donald replied, "Which means I'm thinking up more anti-Heartless spells as we speak…"

"_Allons enfants de la Patrie. Le jour de gloire est arrive!" _D'Artagnan sang with Mole as they staggered around the hall, "_Contre nous de la tyrannie. L'etandard sanglant te leve. Entedez-vous dans nos campagnes. Mugir ces feroces soldats? Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras. Egorger vos fils vos companges! _"

"Yah outta try mah new and improved moonshine!" Cookie shouted, "Whoo wee is it potent."

"I assume that's why D'Artagnan and Mole are singing the French national anthem and staggering around the hallway." Prue remarked.

"I call it the Dreamfinder's Surprise. Care for a taste?" Cookie said, smiling.

"_Aux armees le citroyens. Formez vos battalions!_" the two drunken Frenchmen shouted, "_Marchons, marchons. Qu'un sang impur. Abreuve nos sillons." _

"Maybe later." Prue replied, diplomatically.

"Ah've gotta write the recipe down now." Cookie replied.

Prue turned her head to see a very muddy looking Godfrey, Doc, and Andy sporting some cuts and bruises and thoroughly drenched.

"Godfrey," Doc replied, "What possessed you to put us in that rugby game against the Welsh Regiment?"

"I think his name is Dreamfinder." Andy groaned.

"Come on you wankers. The game wasn't that rough." Godfrey replied.

"Not that rough." Doc began, his eyes narrowing, "Not that rough? You weren't the one who had to contain that enormous Welsh blindside flanker."

"And you weren't gang tackled by that prop and that speedy Welsh flyhalf." Andy added.

"What happened?" Prue asked.

"Godfrey ran into some fellow from his old school in England. They were a few players short for an afternoon rugby game against the Welsh." Doc replied, "So long story short, he asked if we wanted to give it a shot. I used to play in my college days, and Andy said it's close enough to football for his liking."

"Yeah, I got nostalgic about our old high school days, when I was the quarterback." Andy groaned, "Big mistake…"

"Rugby, my friends, is a real man's game." Godfrey replied, grinning, "Because we wear no bloody pads."

"You weren't in a **ruck** with Frankenstein the enormous Welsh flanker." Andy replied, flexing sore muscles, "Remind me never to get into one of those games with Godfrey again."

"Did I mention the Welsh are the main rugby rivals of the English." Godfrey replied, "And that British army sports afternoons can get pretty rough on some days."

"No, you didn't." Andy replied, "You neglected to mention that."

The three men's rugby jerseys were streaked with mud, and a trickle of blood came down Godfrey's nose.

"And what happened to you?" Prue asked.

"I got an elbow to the face trying to tackle the Welsh **flyhalf**." Godfrey replied, "Tackling my opposite number was a difficult one."

"I still don't agree with that quote of yours." Prue began.

"Which one?" Godfrey asked.

"That rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen, where soccer is a gentleman's game played by ruffians." Prue replied, "It's a ruffian's game played by ruffians."

"I agree." Andy replied.

"Did you guys win at least?" Prue replied.

"We got waxed by the Welsh." Andy groaned, "I've never heard so many 'bloody Yanks' comments in my life."

"You're supposed to pass the ball backwards, Andy." Doc reminded.

"I know now." Andy groaned, giving Doc a stare that spoke of death and daggers.

"I've never had to deal with that many **scrums** in my life." Godfrey remarked.

"I'm an American, we don't play rugby." Andy groaned, exasperated, "We play football."

"Actually we do." Prue replied, "In fact we won the gold medal in rugby at the 1924 Olympics in the sport. And actually football evolved after the demand for more protection for rugby players came out."

"That's what you get when you date a curator." Godfrey remarked, tossing his ball into the air.

"Or when you've been around Godfrey too long." Doc replied, "We all know he's the biggest rugby fanatic on this ship."

"It's a man's game, of course." Godfrey replied.

"I need a shower and a nap for at least a few hours." Andy groaned.

"Wimp." Doc grinned.

"Whatever happened to, 'I can handle anything you Brits dish out'?" Godfrey smiled.

"Wanker." Prue added, "Sorry, I couldn't help it."

"I for one have no intention of ever using British slang, despite hanging around Godfrey for almost two weeks…" Andy began as he headed for the quarters he and Prue shared before he bumped his head against a pipe.

"Bollocks!" Andy groaned.

"That was one of the shortest promises I've yet heard." Doc remarked.

"Oh shut up…" Andy groaned, "I could use a nap…"

BOOM! "IT'S ALIVE! HA HA HA HA HA!" came Vinny's maniacal laughter from several rooms away.

"Forget the nap. I could use a pint of that Imperial scotch or even Cookie's moonshine." Andy replied.

Vinny came out of his impromptu lab singed and smelling heavily of smoke and gunpowder, "I did it! I did it! I actually did it!"

"Did what? Cause more repair work for me?" Audrey shouted from down the hall as she headed over to where the others were gathered.

"Of course not! Thanks to Dreamfinder's ability to inspire imaginations, I was able to finally perfect the Walking Cherry Bomb!" Vinny declared.

"Walking Cherry Bomb?" Prue asked incredulously, "Why would you create something like that in the first place?"

Vinny replied, "I was inspired."

"You are insane." Prue quipped.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how did you create that thing?" Audrey asked.

"Easy, _amiga_, I simply took some spare clock parts to make little wind up motor and made some tiny mechanical legs and..."

"Never mind, I don't want to know." Audrey replied.

"But I'd like to know something." Vinny stated.

"What?" Audrey replied.

"If you see something that looks like a cherry bomb with tiny little mechanical legs, come find me immediately." Vinny replied, "It seems one of them got wound up accidentally."

"How do you 'accidentally' wind up a cherry bomb with a clockwork motor? For that matter how can you be so careless with explosives!" Andy asked.

"Uhm, it's possible." Vinny replied.

"Is the fuze lit?" Prue asked Vinny.

"Heh heh, you know, I'm not sure if I quite remember…" Vinny began.

BOOM!

"It was lit." Prue replied.

"YOW! COLD COLD COLD!" came the shout from across the hall, right in front of Kolopak's room where Kolopak was taking a shower.

"Let me guess, it wandered into the water heater." Andy began.

"I guess so…" Vinny replied.

"You GUESS so? What was your first clue?" Kolopak shouted, wrapped only in a towel as he came out of his room.

"Heh heh heh…" Vinny began, "Hate the sin. Love the sinner?"

"The Aztecs used to say hate the sin, sacrifice the sinner to Quetzalcoatl." Kolopak began.

"Uh oh…" Vinny replied.

"Start running, Vinny." Prue suggested.

"HELP!" Vinny shouted as he ran as Kolopak chased him down the hallway with an Aztec war club.

* * *

"So who was that bald guy we faced, Dreamfinder?" Sora asked, as he encountered the Dreamfinder in the lounge.

"He is Imhotep, a man cursed by the Egyptian Hom-Dai." Dreamfinder replied, at Sora's blank expression he added, "The Hom-Dai is probably one of the ancient world's most feared of curses, a curse so horrible it was only known to have been performed once, on Imhotep."

"One who wakes a victim of the Hom-Dai gives him power over the sands and the glory of invincibility." Dreamfinder said.

"Why would anyone curse someone with that?" Sora asked.

"Because Imhotep was to remain sealed in his sarcophagus, the undead for all eternity, but he escaped twice." Dreamfinder replied.

"Imhotep." Godfrey said, as he wandered into the lounge, having just finished his shower and thrown on his usual green British Army uniform, "Why does that sound familiar?"

"The vizier under Seti I?" Dreamfinder hinted, tapping the paperback Sora had been reading earlier.

"Vizier?" Sora asked.

"An advisor." Godfrey replied.

"He didn't do much in the area of good advice." Sora began, "It said Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun, Seti's second wife, killed Seti."

"And Anck-Su-Namun killed herself with Imhotep attempting to resurrect her with The Book of the Dead." Godfrey replied.

"How do you know all this?" Sora asked.

"Read the introduction to that book." Godfrey replied.

"You mean: 'The Mummy's Curse' by Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell?" Sora asked, "The dedication says to A. T. Godfrey, good health and fair time of day. Is she talking about you."

"She's my aunt." Godfrey replied.

"So let me get this straight." Sora began, "Your aunt accidentally resurrected Imhotep, which led to the nine plagues of Egypt being released again in 1923?"

Godfrey nodded and Sora continued, "Then she was kidnapped by Imhotep, because he needed her vital organs to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun?"

Godfrey nodded again and Sora continued, "Then she was rescued at the last second by a group called the Medjai together with Rick O'Connell, an ex-French Foreign Legionnaire?"

Godfrey nodded and added, "They fell in love and got married…"

"And ten years later a cult of Imhotep's followers, led by Anck-Su-Namun reincarnated, no less, resurrected him again?" Sora added. Godfrey nodded again.

"Then Aunt Evy got kidnapped again, Uncle Rick went to save her, Cousin Alex got kidnapped, Aunt Evy and Uncle Rick went after Imhotep who was trying to release the Scorpion King's army of Anubis to consume the world. It was a narrow save when Uncle Rick impaled the Scorpion king with the Scepter of Osiris." Godfrey replied.

"You have strange relatives." Sora grumbled.

"Wait a minute, I thought Jonathan Carnahan did it." Goofy protested, he had a paperback book called Raising the Mummy by Jonathan Carnahan in his hands.

"Uncle Jon was always one for the flair and storytelling." Godfrey replied, "Usually of the exaggerated variety."

Donald asked, "My question is how they raised Imhotep from the dead? Wasn't he absorbed body and soul into the Underworld when he fell into the abyss?"

* * *

Lyle Tiberius Rourke, Imhotep, and Hades stood together in the night of the Olympus Coliseum. "So we have a deal, right?" Rourke asked.

"The deal is made." Imhotep replied, "Only when you have delivered the Charmed One to me. Her powers added to mine would make a wonderful addition."

"Clever idea you've come up with Rourke, but are you certain you can trust your inside man?" Hades asked.

"He will follow his orders." Rourke replied.

"But Godfrey is no fool." Imhotep replied, "How long can you expect to fool him? And from what I have observed of him, he will give his life for those he cares for, especially Prue."

"By the time Godfrey finds out that these weekly reports he sends on Prue, Donald, Goofy, and Sora are giving me all the information you will need to entrap them it will be too late." Rourke replied.

"Do not underestimate the power of feelings or Godfrey's intelligence." Imhotep warned, "He comes from a bloodline that has caused me considerable trouble in the past, and he seems more than capable of making trouble for me in the future."

"And what of feelings?" Rourke replied, "Godfrey's a soldier and he'll do his duty."

"And once he discovers you're using his reports to find a way to entrap Prue and the others?" Imhotep replied.

"That won't matter. For it will be too late." Rourke replied.

"Again, underestimating foes can be fatal, Rourke." Imhotep replied, "Do not underestimate what Godfrey can be capable of, given his feelings for Prue."

"That foolish love he has for that witch will be his undoing." Rourke replied, "Once I have her, I'll have someone else inside Allied Intelligence."

"It also is likely that Godfrey will kill you at the earliest opportunity, Rourke." Imhotep replied.

"Not if he wants his precious witch or his crewmates back alive." Rourke replied, "But of course that would be a deal I have no intention of following, and after the trap is sprung Godfrey will cease being a thorn in our side."

"Still, do not be overconfident that Godfrey can be destroyed so easily." Imhotep replied.

"You forget you owe the fact that you are living and breathing now to me." Rourke replied, "Had I not found the Book of the Dead you would still be rotting away, pining for Anck-Su-Namum in the Dark Underworld."

Imhotep bristled as Hades began, "He has a point."

"You will be rewarded handsomely for your service, Rourke." Imhotep replied, thinking as soon as Rourke's usefulness ended turning him into little more than a desiccated mummy was a fitting end.

"Why thank you." Rourke replied, "Just remember that the fact that you were able to organize that coalition of the Axis powers with the Heartless is directly due to my finding the Book of the Dead and raising you from the grave."

* * *

"Remind me to kill Vinny once I've fixed the water heater." Audrey grumbled, "If one more person asks me when the hot water comes on they're getting one right in the kisser…"

"Trust me," Bertha replied, "The Dreamfinder's enhancing all our creative abilities, and we've all had to put up with Vinny's twisted imagination being enhanced all day."

"Speaking of which, has Kolopak finished beating up on him yet?" Audrey asked.

"OW! OW! OW! NOT THE FACE! NOT THE FACE! OWW!" Vinny's screams echoed all over the corridors.

"No, Kolopak's still at it." Bertha quipped, "But I've enhanced the radio communications aboard this ship thanks to the Dreamfinder helping our imaginations."

Nigel orbed into the room just then. "Have you seen Prue at all?"

"She's probably in her room helping Andy nurse a bruise or two." Bertha remarked.

"What happened to him?" Nigel asked.

"He took up Godfrey's offer to play in a game of rugby…" Bertha began.

"Ah, a real man's game I do say." Nigel began.

"You Brits are insane." Audrey quipped, rolling her eyes as she tightened one more bolt, "Finally the hot water heater is fixed."

"_Allons enfants de la Patrie!" _Mole and D'Artagnan sang as they staggered around with their cups of Cookie's new and improved moonshine.

"Are they still at it?" Audrey asked.

"You should have heard them singing _Frere Jacques_. They're starting from the top of their list of French songs. They're still going strong."

BOOM! BLAM! BLAM! CRASH! A very singed Donald and Goofy came out of the storeroom.

"I told you using the Fire spell to light a candle was a bad idea." Goofy remarked.

"Aw shut up." Donald remarked as they ran from the hallway with several more clockwork cherry bombs chasing them.

"As if Vinny's imagination wasn't twisted enough." Bertha remarked.

BOOM!

"There go some more repairs." Audrey grumbled.

Donald and Goofy ran away from the Walking Cherry Bombs that were exploding behind them one after the other and thought they were in the clear when they locked themselves in another store room. Goofy flicked the light switch on.

Inside the storeroom were about a dozen mechanical ducks about the size of Donald that were bouncing up and down on spring-loaded legs. "Well, at least these won't explode." Goofy remarked.

"Vinny made them, Goofy, chances are they _will _explode." Donald replied, "Like any of his other inventions!"

"Let's get out of here then." Goofy replied.

"The handle's stuck!" Donald replied.

"Well, we'll sit quietly and hope these ducks don't…." Goofy began.

BLAM! BOOM! BOOM! BLAM! WOOSH! WHUMP!

"…Explode…" Goofy groaned as he and Donald staggered out of the storeroom with charred clothing from multiple explosions.

"EUREKA! The Bouncing Duck Bombs were a great success!" Vinny shouted.

"When is the Dreamfinder going to be _off _this ship again?" Donald asked, blowing smoke out of his beak.

"I don't know." Goofy replied.

Donald walked over to the nearest wall and began to bash his head against it. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Here we go again." Goofy commented, rolling his eyes.

* * *

TBC

**Flyhalf **– One of the seven backs in a fifteen man rugby squad. Backs are smaller, faster and more agile than the larger and stronger but slower forwards. A flyhalf is an expert kicker, and can punt the ball. He wears the number ten jersey.

**Ruck – **In rugby, when tackled and going to the ground, the tackled player and tackler form a ruck and push against each other with their teammates joining in. The object is to hook the ball on the ground with your feet and pass it behind you.

**Scrum – **A situation in rugby that results after a dropped ball or similar interruption in play. The eight forwards of each team will shove against each other after the scrum-half (a back) flings the ball underneath them and try to hook it with their feet so the Number Eight can grab the ball at the back of the scrum and pass it.


	7. A Gathering of Clouds

A Gathering of Clouds

Disclaimer: Same as before…

* * *

BOOM! "Your almost as bad as Vinny with explosives." Prue remarked as Paige mixed a potion.

"ARGH! How was I used too much Barrow's Spade?" Paige replied defensively.

"You know now." Prue replied, "Besides, I said almost. You should have seen how much damage his Walking Cherry Bombs did today."

"From the smoke and ash on your jacket I don't think I want to know." Paige replied.

Piper came down the stairs, "I see you walked in on Paige's Potion 101 project."

Piper noticed the ash and soot Prue was brushing off of her jacket. "I see Paige's explosive potions are improving." Piper quipped.

"No, blame Vinny." Prue replied, "And his Walking Cherry Bombs."

"His _what?_" Piper remarked.

"Walking Cherry Bombs." Prue replied, in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"Prue, where did the Elders choose to reincarnate you? A flying insane asylum?" Piper replied.

"Sometimes I ask myself the same question." Prue replied.

"Who on earth creates a Walking Cherry Bomb? For that matter, why would anyone create a Walking Cherry Bomb?" Paige asked.

"Vinny, to answer your first question." Prue replied, "And because Vinny is currently inspired…"

"By who? Screwloose the Loon?" Paige asked.

"I was just getting there Paige." Prue replied, "And Screwloose the Loon actually looks normal compared to Vinny."

"Who inspired him?" Piper asked.

"The Dreamfinder." Prue replied.

"The what?" Piper asked.

"The Dreamfinder." Leo said, as he orbed into the kitchen, also covered in soot.

"What happened to you?" Piper asked.

"Apparently a few of Vinny's Walking Cherry Bombs wound up in the Whitelighter Area. A very large number of them in Natalie's bedroom…" Leo replied.

"How many?" Prue asked.

"A few." Leo replied.

"That doesn't sound too bad." Prue replied.

"Dozen." Leo replied.

"How did they get up there?" Piper asked.

"They must have stuck to Nigel when he went to the _Morrowind_ to warn me that the Elders are debating giving the Dreamfinder sanctuary up there." Prue replied, "Vinny was jabbering excitedly about how his new and improved Walking Cherry Bombs have little adhesive surfaces that stick to almost anything before they explode."

"What's next?" Leo asked, "Self lighting fuses."

"Leo, for all I know Vinny's turned our furnace into one enormous bomb right now." Prue replied, "Thank God it's springtime…"

"Has he done that?" Leo asked, eyebrows furrowing.

"Not yet." Prue replied, knocking on the kitchen counter.

"Prue, I never imagined you to be the superstitious type." Phoebe replied as she walked inside, "Why does it smell like smoke in here?"

"One, Paige is making potions again. Two, Prue and the Whitelighters apparently had a run in with Walking Cherry Bombs." Piper replied.

"Whoa. What?" Phoebe asked, "I get the Paige made potions part, but Walking Cherry Bombs."

"Exactly what I said, the _Morrowind's _lunatic inventor, Vinny, created them." Piper replied.

"Who is this guy? A relative of Dr. Frankenstein?" Phoebe asked.

"Actually, Dr. Frankenstein is Vinny's idol. He has a framed painting of the proto-type mad scientist himself in his quarters." Prue replied, "The man is everything Vinny aspires to be."

"Why am I not surprised?" Phoebe replied.

"Trust me, the Walking Cherry Bombs weren't nearly as bad as the Bouncing Duck Bombs." Prue replied, rolling her eyes.

"Come again?" Phoebe asked.

"Bouncing Duck Bombs." Prue replied, "Basically they're about the same height as Donald, but packed full of TNT or Nitroglycerin and bounce around on spring-loaded legs before they explode."

"You certainly were born again into a very interesting crowd, Prue." Paige remarked, "A British policeman-turned-Army Intelligence Officer, an Aztec…"

"Technically Kolopak isn't an Aztec, he's from a tribe called the Rubber Tree People." Prue replied, "They hated the Aztecs because the Aztecs persecuted them, and helped the Spaniards until the Spaniards started persecuting them too."

"Whatever." Paige replied, as she ticked examples off of her fingers, "An Atlantean princess, a pyromaniac Italian, a Medicine Man doctor, three Disney characters…"

"I get the picture, Paige." Prue replied, rolling her eyes, "Let's just say that Donald set the record for the number of times I figured anyone could bash their heads into walls before knocking themselves unconscious."

"My God, the Elders must be crazy." Piper replied.

"Most of the _Morrowind's _crew is the same way." Prue replied.

"Even Godfrey?" Piper asked, with a sly grin.

"When it comes to either darts or rugby he's absolutely out of his mind." Prue replied, "For example he got Doc and Andy into a match with the Welsh, because three guys on the English team came down with food poisoning. All three of them came back muddy, bruised and tired. But what's going on around here?"

"Well we vanquished the Source, only to discover Cole became the new Source." Paige replied, "Then Phoebe was pregnant with the child of the Apocalpyse…"

"Whoa. Back up a second! The _what_?" Prue asked.

"The child of the Apocalypse." Paige said, in a very matter of fact tone, mimicking Prue's reply about the walking cherry bombs perfectly.

"And then the Seer abducted us all, stole the baby, but couldn't contain its powers and the high council of demons got killed in the ensuing explosion and then we were freed." Paige finished.

"I'm out of this for a little while and things take a turn down the Bad News Turnpike." Prue replied, "I don't know which is worse…"

"Thanks a lot, Prue." Phoebe snapped.

"Sorry." Prue replied, "This is just all so new to me right now."

"Receiving letters from you and your astral projections home are kind of new to us too." Paige replied.

"Not that you aren't welcome." Phoebe replied, "We all miss you so much."

"Phoebe," Prue replied, hugging her sister, "I'm so sorry about Cole and the baby."

"I don't know what to believe about him any more." Phoebe replied.

"You'll always have us, Phoebe." Piper replied, joining in the group hug, with Paige joining as well.

BOOM!

"Paige, you had the portions for the smoke potion all wrong." Piper began.

"ARGH!" Paige groaned.

* * *

"You know, the _Morrowind _is so peaceful at night." Milo observed as he put an arm protectively around Kida, who had the two month old Lal currently sleeping in her arms.

"Especially when Vinny's batteries have wound down and he's collapsed in a stupor." Kida replied.

"And when Donald's not frustrated about something and not banging his head into the wall." Milo replied, "Which reminds me, I won the pool today."

"You're getting involved in Goofy's insane betting pool?" Kida asked, open mouthed.

"Well, it was for a good cause…" Milo began as they walked back to their quarters.

As he opened the door he replied, "Happy Anniversary sweetheart. It's been two years of lawfully wedded bliss."

"Milo," Kida began, as he wrapped his arms around her waistline, "You are too good to me."

Milo kissed the left side of her neck from behind and Kida whispered, "If you keep doing that you might give Lal a little brother or sister sooner than we intended."

"Well…" Milo began.

"Don't even think about it, mister." Kida replied, "It's all well and good for you, because you don't have to carry the baby and put up with being sore everywhere, a painful back, swollen ankles…"

"I get the picture, I get the picture." Milo replied.

Lal yawned again and turned towards her mother's breast, Kida instinctively held the baby closer to her, smiling as the baby barely stirred.

"So what did you spend your hard earned winnings at Donald's expense on?" Kida asked.

Milo reached into his pocket and took out a long slender box then handed it to Kida. Kida opened the box to see a bracelet, a simple, slender, yet elegant gold bracelet with a green emerald flanked by two diamonds.

"Green to symbolize the life we all hold dear." Milo explained, "And the diamonds are two as one in the Circle of Life."

"Champagne?" Kida asked, as her eyes flickered to the dinner table.

"That's from D'Artagnan, he claims he liberated it from a careless Italian guard at the Italy pavilion." Milo replied.

"The teddy bear?" Kida said, noticing one on the couch with a large cream colored ribbon on it.

"From Prue." Milo replied, "It's for Lal. And the bib is from Andy. Godfrey bought us that framed saying."

"You mean the: _If We Can Dream it We Can Do It_ slogan from Horizons?" Kida asked.

"Godfrey also said he'd take my duty so that we could spend our last night in EPCOT together, Audrey and Bertha offered to babysit, Cookie got us reservations for the nicest restaurant in World Showcase, and Kolopak made a dream catcher for the baby's crib." Milo replied, "Goofy, Donald and Sora made a mobile for the baby as well."

"What did Vinny decide to make?" Kida asked, "Or do I not want to know…"

ZAP! HISSSS! WHAP!

"IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Vinny's shouting could be heard through the wall.

"You don't want to know and he didn't say what it was." Milo replied.

"AUGH! RUN! HELP HELP HELP!" Vinny screamed, "OW! SHARP BEAK! SHARP BEAK! OW! OW! OW!"

"Something tells me the Dreamfinder needs to get off this ship, pronto." Kida observed, "He's inspired too much of Vinny's inventive ability."

BOIIIINNNGGGG! SPLAT!

"OW!" Donald could be heard from the hallway, as he evidently tripped a spring loaded deck plate.

"Remind me to never let Vinny make any of Lal's toys." Kida groaned.

"Of course dear." Milo replied.

"FIRE!" Donald shouted as he fired a fireball at Vinny.

"YEOW!" Vinny shouted as he dodged the flaming projectile.

"You're not getting away that easily! THUNDER!" Donald shouted.

"ZOWWWW! YEOWWWCH!" Vinny shouted as Donald electrocuted him.

Milo headed for the door and poked his head into the hallway, "Will you idiots stop screwing around out there, you're gonna wake up my daughter!"

"Oh no…" Milo groaned as he saw three more Walking Cherry Bombs heading into the hallway. He slammed the door in time for the bombs to explode and wreck the front door.

"Vinny…" Milo began, as he grabbed a sword on the wall of their quarters, "PREPARE TO DIE!"

"HEY! Milo! Come back here!" Kida shouted, as she joined in the chase, "That's a ceremonial sword! Don't taint it with the blood of the lunatic inventor!"

As Prue astral projected back into her body, she could hear the commotion in the hallway. Andy already was lying face down with the pillow on top of his head muttering several curses against the 'Lunatic Italian Inventor' and the Dreamfinder.

Prue yawned and fell asleep as Andy said, "You're trying to sleep through all this?"

"Not trying, going." Prue replied.

"These people are beyond help." Andy groaned from beneath the pillow.

"Are you going to bed or not?" Prue asked.

"With all this racket outside?" Andy asked.

"I'm used to it." Prue remarked, "Good night."

* * *

For the umpteenth time Matthias Vossman checked his equipment and rifle over. For the past twenty-four hours the officers and NCOs had been calling on every German soldier fit to fight and putting them into various 'shotgun platoons'. He was being readied to seize the World of Motion pavilion, in the wake of the "Consular Guards" who were in reality soldiers of the Waffen SS, some of Germany's elite formations.

He assumed the Italians and Japanese consulates had similar designs. Capturing the technology that EPCOT's scientific laboratories could produce was a high priority for all three nations, that much he assumed.

"Why the hell are they grabbing us for this crap? To take this tourist trap world?" A German soldier recovered from wounds sustained on the Eastern Front.

"We have our orders." Matthias replied.

"For this world?" The other German soldier countered.

Another one added his own opinion, "The science labs in Future World, why else. Has facing the Russians left you completely addled."

"You'd be wise to take that back. The Ivan is a formidable enemy." The Russian Front veteran replied.

Natterman, the platoon sergeant for this mixed unit of recently recovered German soldiers, watched as the thirty-seven soldiers grumbled among themselves about their returns to their individual units being cancelled. In a few hours he knew this platoon would be ordered to reinforce the SS unit that would take World of Motion. He knew the Japanese were coming in from the east and the Italians would be on the southern flank of their German allies.

Either way the fighting was going to be toughest when the forces would be bottlenecked along the World Showcase lagoons. The SS formations would spearhead the assaults, while the 'shotgun companies' of the wounded would come in behind them.

He looked at the map of the route of the proposed German advance and figured the worst of the fighting would be against the Free Norwegian contingent at the Norway pavilion. Of course a puppet government had been installed in Norway after Germany occupied her, but the Pro-German Norwegians also had the Free Norwegians to contend with, who greatly outnumbered them in EPCOT.

Nervous soldiers were checking watches, examining weapons, and scribbling out letters. The officers were still in a meeting elsewhere in the consulate. The cramped basement stank of sweat and stale nerves.

* * *

Godfrey had just awakened to go out to run when he saw a British soldier in the passageway, "Lieutenants Godfrey and D'Artagnan?"

"I'm Lieutenant Godfrey, what's going on?"

"I can't say anything here, but both of you are needed at Allied HQ, immediately sir." The soldier replied.

"I'll go get dressed and wake D'Artagnan." Godfrey replied.

"There's a car outside for you gentlemen, I'll be there sir." The soldier replied.

Godfrey rousted a sleepy and somewhat hung over D'Artagnan and the two men headed for the car. The British staff car drove them on a fifteen minute car rid down towards the Allied Headquarters, which was located between the United Kingdom and Canada pavilion.

Major Waverly of the Allied Intelligence Bureau was waiting for them. "Sir." Godfrey began.

"Things are going to come to a head and soon, Mr. Godfrey." Waverly began without ceremony. "We have reports that the Axis Powers are up to something, very likely operations aimed at seizing the scientific innovations of Future World.

Godfrey noticed there were officers and non-coms from all the Allied Nations, British, Canadians, Free French, and Americans milling about, talking amongst themselves, exchanging information on German, Italian, and Japanese intentions.

"Orders, sir?" D'Artagnan said.

"You two are to defend HQ from capture." Waverly began without ceremony. In the background a British sergeant was inspecting the rifles of a motley assortment of ciphers, clerks, and radio operators. Most of them were pale, slender rear echelon troops who never expected to face the Japanese.

"I don't envy you boys at all." A voice said.

Godfrey turned and saw an American officer standing behind him; he was a 2nd Lieutenant, about twenty two years old. The officer introduced himself, "James Sutherland. Malden, Massachusetts. 10th Mountain Division."

He noticed Godfrey outranked him and added a, "Sir."

"Alan Godfrey. Mayapore, India. 1st Battalion, His Majesty's Royal Indian Engineers." Godfrey replied.

"We're being held in reserve, you boys are on the forward positions." Sutherland replied.

When Sutherland headed back to his unit, D'Artagnan turned back to Godfrey and said, "Elite unit my ass."

"You want to make something of it, Frenchie." Sutherland replied.

"Perhaps." D'Artagnan replied, "But someone was being arrogant."

"Hah, a Frenchman accuses us of arrogance…" Sutherland began.

"Both of you shut your traps. We're on the same bloody side here." Godfrey replied, with just a touch of irritation, "We've got the Germans, Italians and Japanese, plus whatever Heartless they have here about to come bearing down on us and you chaps can't help but argue."

The two officers looked at Godfrey askance, before they separated. "D'Artagnan, after this is over, if we survive this, you can punch him to your hearts content." Godfrey replied, "He is, after all, an arrogant young whelp."

"It would appear, _Monsieur _Godfrey, that we think alike." D'Artagnan began

"In some areas, D'Artagnan. But being an officer demands that cooler heads prevail." Godfrey replied, "Especially now."

"We have to warn the _Morrowind_." D'Artagnan replied.

"Head over there immediately, I'll meet you back here." Godfrey replied.

"_Oui mon leutnant._" D'Artagnan replied.

D'Artagnan departed as Godfrey checked the M1 Carbine in his hands, and the revolver at his side, remembering words of his father said to him many years ago, as a squad of Military Policemen from the American 1st Infantry Division marched by.

"_My son, recall the proud line you descend from. Godfrey men have always been a line of fighting men, as soldiers of Britain." _

_Especially when it comes to those we care about. _Godfrey replied, thinking of his friends on the _Morrowind_, and not just Prue.

* * *

"The Book of the Dead brings the dead back to life." Colonel Rourke began, "I'm sure the witch will want this to save her beloved."

"It's a possibility, yes." Imhotep replied.

"So the Dreamfinder being in the hands of the _Morrowind's _crew, with his ability to inspire plan and imagination, can work to our advantage. Let's just assume they found out just how you were raised from the dead." Rourke replied, "And if my knowledge is right, Lieutenant Godfrey is related to your longtime enemies, the O'Connell family."

"Set a trap for the witch, and the others follow. Very brilliant of you, Rourke." Imhotep replied, "You are proving yourself useful."

"But what if this trap fails?" Jafar quipped, "I would rather redouble efforts to capture the Dreamfinder."

"As if that succeeded." Oogie Boogie sniped, "I say we get help from the new Source."

"Are you insane?" Hades replied, "The Source of All Evil was vanquished twice by the Charmed Ones."

"The Source is far stronger than we think." Oogie Boogie protested, "Three mere witches cannot defeat the source of all evil."

"You would do well, Oogie Boogie, to bear in mind that the Halliwells are not 'mere witches', and that the oldest sister, Prue, has aligned herself with the wielder of the Keyblade and is causing more than enough trouble for our operations." Maleficent began.

"On another subject we have to operation to seize EPCOT's technology underway." Imhotep replied, "We have the element of surprise on our side."

"True, but technology versus a witch?" Jafar remarked, "And risking the Book of the Dead? It sounds like a bad gamble to me."

"She will throw all caution into the wind for her beloved." Hades said with a wolfish grin, "Trust me on this one. No matter how powerful or intelligent, humans will do anything to save those they love. It is their chief vulnerability."

"I don't want to risk our best weapon." Jafar remarked.

"Use it to raise the Source." Oogie Boogie replied, "And then he can kill the Halliwell witch once and for all."

"And have the Source turn against us. I don't think so!" Hades replied, "That's an even worse gamble Roach Bag."

"Why don't I just blow out your hair, Candle Brain?" Oogie Boogie snapped back.

"Why don't both of you shut up and stop acting like children." Jafar said, "Raising the Source with the Book of the Dead is out of the question."

"And who died and put you in charge, Jafar?" Oogie Boogie challenged.

"Don't make me pull out your stitches." Jafar replied.

"I'll help." Hades replied.

"Silence!" Maleficent ordered, "We are doing no such thing as raising the Source from the dead. He will invariably bite the hand that feeds him."

"He could rid us of the witch." Oogie Boogie replied.

"And in exchange he will subjugate us all." Maleficent replied, "For he doesn't share power. His agenda is different from ours. I would rather not run that risk."

"If all of us unite we can control the Source." Oogie Boogie protested.

"We are not discussing this again." Maleficent replied, "We are not raising the Source for the simple fact that he will exploit us."

The villains dispersed and as Oogie Boogie remained behind a shadowy apparition appeared before him.

"You were unsuccessful." The Source's spirit began.

"I know." Oogie Boogie replied.

"We need the Book of the Dead to bring me back." The Source replied.

"And will I gain what I hoped?" Oogie Boogie asked.

"Halloween Town will be yours, and the holiday you so crave will be yours as well." The Source replied.

"Maleficent said that you would subjugate us all." The Source replied.

"Perhaps," the Source replied, "But those who helped me return will be spared. After all I am not so heartless as to forget those who have helped me."

"Consider it done." Oogie Boogie replied.

"I will hold you to that." The Source replied.

* * *

"Whoa, wait." Prue began, "So you're saying the Germans, Italians, and Japanese together with the Heartless are converging around on Future World?"

"Exactly." D'Artagnan said.

"Where's Godfrey?" Prue asked.

"He's at HQ, and that's where I'll be as well. We have to stay, but you don't. Get out of here while you still can." D'Artagnan replied, "Come back for us if we survive."

"Kolopak, what do you think?" Kida asked.

"Who knows how powerful a force the Germans have mustered?" Mole began.

"Add the Italians and Japanese for spice." Cookie said, "It's a big risk, especially if they get the ship."

Kida nursed her infant, and then wiped her mouth as Cookie spoke.

"But we have not only all those Allied troops, but civilians caught in the crossfire." Prue began, "I for one don't want those innocents…"

"Prue we understand where you're coming from, but what if the enemy is victorious?" Vinny began.

"Vinny's right you know." Audrey replied, "You're not just putting yourself in danger. But you're also endangering Lal, Sora, and…"

"Audrey, I know. But we can't just leave all those innocents unprotected." Prue replied.

"The decision isn't ours to make though." Milo began.

"Milo, what are you talking about." Goofy countered, "It's all our decision."

"We have our inputs, but the call lies with Kolopak to make. He is the captain of this ship." Bertha replied.

"Kolopak, what do you think?" Prue asked.

The old Indian sat, no readable expression on his face, as the eyes of his crew all focused on him. An old 1903A1 Springfield bolt action rifle was across his knees as he breathed in and out.

_The thatch huts burned swiftly into the sky. Running people of the Rubber Tree Tribe were being pursued by the Heartless. A young Kolopak returned from a hunting trip, watching the few warriors of the tribe being overwhelmed. He saw Leawak, a hulking mountain mass of a man strike a Bandit in the head with the heavy stone ax. He struck another running Shadow only to be impaled through the back by the sword of another Bandit. Blood issued from his mouth as four more Heartless ganged up on him, tearing Leawak apart. _

_Kolopak dropped to one knee, taking an arrow from his quiver and nocking it into his bow, pulling back the string and letting fly, hitting a Soldier Heartless in the neck, watching the creature bleed black blood into the dirt. _

"_FATHER!" Kolopak shouted as he saw Chakotay, an aged man in his fifties, his back against a tree and a stone studded war club in his hands. Five Heartless surrounded him, keeping their distance, for a sixth Soldier Heartless lay bludgeoned to death. The others saw that Chakotay, though an old man was still as formidable as a jaguar in battle. _

_Even from the distance, Kolopak saw the pain in Chakotay's eyes, could see blood from a wound. The Heartless circled him like jackals._

"_Kolopak! Leave! Save yourself and the tribe!" Chakotay shouted._

"_I can't leave you Father!" Kolopak shouted._

"_Go my son! Do not allow my sacrifice to be in vain!" Chakotay shouted, pain creeping into his voice, but Kolopak could see the strength in his father. _

_A Shadow Heartless lunged, promptly taking a crack in the elbow from Chakotay's club. A Soldier Heartless stabbed claws into Chakotay's back and he let out a roar of pain. _

_Kolopak dropped to one knee, nocked his last arrow, taking aim and firing, hitting the Soldier Heartless through the left eye at sixty yards. The creature lay on the back, blood spurted from Chakotay's back and he dropped to one knee. _

_The four surviving Heartless rushed Chakotay's kneeling form, knocking his club loose. He took an obsidian knife from his belt and stabbed it right into the chin of a Shadow Heartless. The three others showed no mercy and clawed Chakotay to death. Kolopak couldn't look away, but he knew he had to be strong, he had to lead the tribe, what survived of it…_

"Kolopak?" Vinny asked.

Both sides were compelling arguments. Leave and protect the Keyblade wielder and the Charmed One? Stay and risk losing the lives of his crewmen and his ship? Kolopak had grown up on the stories of what had happened to his tribe under the Aztecs, and later the Spaniards. He had seen firsthand the devastation the Heartless could wage on a world, the destruction of his village.

"I'll be damned if I allow any more losses to innocents." Kolopak replied, "But I want us to stay close to the ship. Vinny, how many of your explosive contraptions are still around?"

"A few dozen." Vinny replied, "I was up all night inventing."

"And you say the Walking Cherry Bombs stick to anything?" D'Artagnan asked.

"Yes." Vinny replied.

"Perfect if they decide to hit us with tanks." D'Artagnan replied, "I'll take some back to the Allies."

"I'll see if I can't rig up some more." Vinny replied.

"Audrey, help him out. Kida, you and Milo stay with the ship, keep her ready for takeoff, we may be needing to get aboard and into the air fast. Doc go through the armory and arm anyone who doesn't have powers or the Keyblade." Kolopak replied.

* * *

AN: Recall this is an AU World War II that Prue was reincarnated into…

TBC (Things with the Germans, Italians, Japanese and Heartless really come to a head with The Storm…)


	8. The Storm

The Storm

Disclaimer: Same as before, for the love of Christ don't sue me.

* * *

Doc took the key from his pocket and unlocked the door to the _Morrowind's _armory. Inside the room were gun racks where rifles from different manufacturers, but mostly British and American, lined the walls.

Andy followed behind him and said, "You know, these things are museum pieces in my time."

Doc replied, "I forgot, you and Prue come from a different timeline. For us it's the year 1942, for Prue it was the year 2001 when she was killed and reborn."

"And the last date I remember was 1999." Andy replied.

"Well, I hope you remember, Mr. Future Cop, how to use these things." Doc replied, as he passed Andy a bolt action 1903 Springfield together with a bandolier that contained five round clips of ammunition.

"The dangerous end is here, right?" Andy asked, sarcastically, pointing at the muzzle.

"Yeah." Doc replied.

Vinny entered the room as well with a 'child in the candy shop' expression on his face.

"You let _Vinny _in here?" Andy asked, incredulously.

"Only during emergencies." Doc replied, "And with the Axis forces and the Heartless at large, that qualifies."

"Right." Andy replied, "Stay where I can see you."

Vinny shrugged, "What's his deal?"

"Probably paranoid about yourinventing things again." Doc replied, as Vinny selected an M1 Thompson sub machinegun from a rack, and stuck a few fifty round drums into a satchel that was on a strap across his chest.

"_Probably? Probably? _Try very paranoid." Andy replied.

"Relax. Right about now we want a lot of explosions, preferably blowing up Nazis and Heartless and their allies." Doc replied.

The rest of the _Morrowind's _crew were lined up outside and Doc handed them weapons. Obviously Prue, Donald and Sora needed no armaments, and they stood off to one side watching their crewmates receiving arms.

Prue watched as Kolopak slung two bandoliers of .30-06 rounds for his Springfield rifle. Kolopak muttered something to himself as he loaded a five round clip into the weapon.

"What's wrong?" Prue asked.

"It is a prayer to the gods of my people. That I may be taken into the Great Forest and be forever reunited with my loved ones once again." Kolopak replied.

"You know your positions?" Kolopak asked his crew.

At several nods and muttered 'yes' statements he said, "I need not remind you, we are fighting not only for our lives, but for the innocents here. Vinny, you stay with Prue, Sora, and Donald when they head to face the Japanese. Andy, you, Doc, Cookie, and Bertha come with me. Audrey, stay with Vinny and Kida on the ship, we may need to lift off in a hurry."

* * *

"Did you hear that?" a British soldier said, from behind a barricade.

"Relax." Godfrey began, "When they get here you'll know it."

A fog settled over EPCOT that morning. The men on the forward Allied positions could hear echoes, shouts. Godfrey glanced to his left, and to his right. Many of these British soldiers were men from rear echelon, or administrative units here, mixed in with some recently recovered casualties or walking wounded hastily armed with rifles and sent to face the Japanese at the United Kingdom pavilion.

Godfrey chambered a round into his rifle as the shouts and war cries got even closer. "BANZAI!" came the shout as several Japanese soldiers came charging towards the British positions. Alongside them were a band of Heartless.

"Fire!" Godfrey shouted.

The British opened fire just then, raking the front ranks of the Japanese assault with rifle fire and the light machinegun as well. Godfrey watched a soldier to his right take two rounds through the chest. He leveled his carbine at the Japanese soldier who was currently reloading his weapon and fired a shot that drilled him right in the throat.

A Japanese officer with a katana raised his weapon, intending to cleave Godfrey's head off only to be practically torn in half by D'Artagnan emptying almost an entire twenty round magazine from his Tommy gun into him.

"Thanks mate." Godfrey replied.

"Any time." D'Artagnan replied, reloading a magazine as the Japanese closed with the front ranks.

Godfrey watched as the forward positions displaced backward towards the next fortified building, the Rose and Crown Pub. He followed four running British soldiers, being covered by others in another nearby building. The Japanese had crossed the International Gateway bridge, despite their numbers being drastically reduced by concentrated rifle fire together with light machineguns.

The plan was that the British would fortify certain buildings on the Japanese axis of approach with mutually supporting fields of fire. The light machineguns were blasting into the Japanese flanks. Already they had hit one of the British buildings.

"We'd best reinforce that lot." Godfrey ordered, leading the other four soldiers towards the Rose and Crown Pub.

Godfrey ran at the lead, just as a Japanese soldier lobbed a grenade at the knot of British soldiers. "Get clear!" Godfrey shouted.

The grenade exploded and flung Godfrey into the planter. One of the other British soldiers lay on his stomach, groaning, his hands holding his midsection. A Japanese soldier ran up to the wounded Brit and shot him in the head.

"You bastard!" Godfrey shouted and shot the Japanese soldier in the belly.

One of the other British soldiers not wounded by the grenade ran up to the wounded Japanese soldier and beat him to death with the stock of his rifle.

Already several Japanese soldiers had entered the Rose and Crown and were duking it out with British soldiers in hand to hand fighting. Godfrey shouted, "Grenades."

The three surviving British troops each flung grenades into the Japanese soldiers and Heartless charging inside the pub, killing several of them.

"Kyah!" a shout behind Godfrey sounded.

Godfrey turned, and saw a Japanese soldier about to run him through with a bayonet. A heartbeat before the bayonet would have imbedded itself in his midsection a concrete garbage container went flying and hit the **_hetai _**with full force, knocking him down.

"As I said, Godfrey, watch your back." Prue said.

Godfrey nodded and raced over to help the other British soldiers fighting the Japanese in the U.K. pavilion. Prue could hear the sounds of grenades exploding, the blasts killing friend and foe alike in the confines of rooms and buildings.

As Prue, Sora, Goofy, Donald, and Vinny ran towards the heart of the fighting they passed the two sprawled corpses of a Japanese soldier and a British soldier. Several Heartless and Japanese reinforcements were crossing the International Gateway Bridge.

"Vinny! They're crossing the International Gateway Bridge. Do you think you can stop them?" Prue replied.

Vinny hefted his sack full of walking cherry bombs. "Cover me!" Vinny shouted.

Vinny began to wind up the Walking Cherry Bombs and lit the fuses, sending them walking towards the charging Japanese and Heartless on the bridge. Explosion after explosion sounded, the bombs killing many attacking troops.

Despite the help of Vinny's explosives cutting down the numbers of Japanese and Heartless the British and Free French defenders of the United Kingdom Pavilion were starting to loose ground. They were giving it slowly, retreating from building to building, room by room, floor by floor. The British were even cutting holes in the walls of adjoining buildings, moving into the neighboring structure and pelting the Japanese that went through the holes with grenades and gunfire.

Bullets, grenades, fists, knives and rifle butts were being used in the fighting. Godfrey kicked a Japanese grenade outside before it exploded, and promptly was knocked into a wall by a Japanese soldier charging through a hole in the wall of the toy shop he and several British soldiers had ducked inside to regroup.

Godfrey managed to raise his shorter barreled carbine up and fired a shot that took the enemy soldier down with a bullet in the kneecap. Another British soldier, this one a survivor of the Singapore defeat earlier that year, aimed his rifle and shot the Japanese soldier in the forehead. A second Japanese officer decapitated the avenging Brit with his katana only to be rushed by Godfrey.

All around him the British soldiers were fighting hand to hand with the Japanese unit that charged into the building. Godfrey bashed the Japanese officer's head into the floor three times before the Jap bit him in the fingers savagely and turned. Godfrey was now on his back on the floor, as the two officers were wrapped in a no holds barred two man war. Godfrey head butted the Japanese soldier in the face, blood gushed from the man's nose.

The Japanese soldier grabbed a small dagger from his belt and raised it over his head with a savage cry. Godfrey grabbed the knife hand with one of his own, as the Japanese soldier pressed down on his throat. The knife was headed straight for Godfrey's left eye and the Japanese soldier began saying words in another language as Godfrey felt his vision fading from the lack of air. Godfrey drove a knee upward into the Jap's crotch, disrupting the assault and he swiftly drew his .38 from his holster, aimed, and shot the Japanese officer in the forehead. He grabbed his carbine off the ground and led the British troops back to the next rallying point, towards the Canada pavilion.

* * *

Meanwhile the Germans and Italians, together with a large force of Heartless had already driven the Free Norweigan forces out of the Norway pavilion. They crashed headlong into the positions of the American 1st Infantry Division.

Kolopak dropped to one knee behind a planter, aimed his Springfield at a running German, giving the charging soldier a little bit of lead before squeezing the trigger. The rifle cracked loudly and the German soldier hit the ground, as the bullet tore through his skull. Kolopak was already working the bolt on his Springfield rifle and looking for another target. He saw a Soldier Heartless heading behind an American machinegun post.

Kolopak breathed in, a deep breath, aiming at the Heartless, the butt of his rifle solidly on his shoulder. He slowly squeezed the trigger, making small corrections to give the Heartless just enough lead to run smack into the bullet. CRACK! Kolopak's rifle spoke again.

_Jesus. _Andy thought. Two shots. Two dead enemies easily over four hundred yards away. Kolopak's face bore no discernable expression as he scanned for another target, after chambering a third round.

"Kolopak." Andy warned as he ducked as a burst of machinegun fire chipped away at the planter he and Kolopak hid behind.

Kolopak was unbothered, he held his fire as three American soldiers ran past his line of fire. He saw a German soldier with a Schmeisser MP40 sub machinegun reloading. He had been firing his weapon at Kolopak and Andy's position before running out.

The German was a hundred and fifty yards away, ducked behind a pile of rubble, only a little bit of his head showing. _Wait. _Kolopak thought.

Another burst of gunfire sounded from another direction. "Kolopak…" Andy warned. Andy had been trading shots with an Italian soldier with a rifle three hundred yards away.

_Calm. Focus. _Kolopak thought. The German soldier with the Schmeisser raised his head and weapon to fire, only to be shot through the right eye by Kolopak's shot. Kolopak worked the bolt on the Springfield and then shifted his aim to the left, at the Italian rifleman and squeezed off his fourth shot, killing the Italian.

An explosion struck the planter, just inches from their heads. A German _Panzerfaust _team had zeroed in on their position. "Kolopak…bazooka team, aiming at us right now." Andy replied, as he snapped off shots at the Germans, hitting the assistant gunner.

Kolopak took aim. One bullet in the magazine, and if this German had the _Panzerfaust _reloaded, that meant a rocket would be launched this way, and not miss this time. Kolopak noted the German soldier, dropped to one knee, aiming the anti-tank rocket and peering through the sights. Kolopak aimed the weapon, squeezing the trigger. CRACK! The Springfield sounded again and tore a ragged hole into the German's head, just below his nose.

"Nice shooting, Tex." Andy remarked as Kolopak loaded a fresh clip of five .30-06 rounds into the weapon.

"I agree, saw the whole damn thing from back there." Another voice remarked. Kolopak turned to see an American serviceman, with a gray band on his helmet with a USN on the front.

"A little far from the sea, aren't you, sailor?" Kolopak remarked.

"Not if your job is blasting obstacles for landing vessels." The American replied, "Lieutenant Evan Coleridge, Navy Combat Demolition Unit Seventeen."

"Kolopak. I'm the captain of the airship, _Morrowind._" Kolopak replied.

"We're here to reinforce the guys defending this area." Coleridge replied, "There's about fifteen of us."

The sixteen American sailors were joined by a group of soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, Lieutenant Sutherland's unit. "Germans have broken though the line towards Future World East." Sutherland began. We'd best quit yapping and plug the gap."

"Agreed." Coleridge replied. The mixed group of 10th Mountain soldiers and NCDU sailors rushed up towards the gap.

Bertha and Cookie were running towards the planter from another location. They had been pinned down by the five enemy soldiers Kolopak had just dispatched in rapid succession. They were nearing the planted when…

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"Flak gun! 20 mil! 20 mil!" Sutherland shouted, as the flak gun opened up, the 20mm anti-aircraft rounds tearing Private Willard in half and decapitating Private Carter.

"Scatter! Take cover!" Coleridge ordered.

Kolopak took aim at the weapon and squeezed the trigger, the .30 caliber round smacking ineffectually against the milled steel plate shielding the German gunners. He kept firing, bouncing rounds off of the armor plate on the weapon.

"Shit." Andy replied as he and Kolopak dived out of the way.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The German gun crew turned the wheeled flak gun against Kolopak and Andy and the two men dived out of the way.

"We've got to flank that thing." Doc began.

"Agreed." Sutherland replied, "Tella, use that Molotov on them."

"Yes sir." The soldier replied, lighting the fuse on the Molotov cocktail and running to flank the weapon.

CRACK! A single rifle shot sounded, and Tella hit the ground, spinning in a last pirouette as a bullet tore through his head.

"Bertha! Wait!" Doc shouted, "Damn it!"

Bertha ran, grabbing the lit Molotov cocktail before Doc could stop her.

"What is that crazy old bat doing?" Sutherland asked.

"What you wanted Tella to do. Covering fire!" Doc shouted. Doc fired bursts of gunfire from his Tommy gun, hoping to keep the sniper that had just taken Tella out down.

Bertha ran like a woman many years younger, the lit petrol bomb in her hands. She knew she had only one shot at this entire thing and lobbed the weapon at the German gun crew. The bottle burst, spraying liquid fire on the Germans.

Inhuman cries of agony and pain resulted as three human torches ran away from the flak gun. The burning soldiers ran, stumbling madly towards the World Showcase Lagoon.

Andy aimed his rifle only to have one of the 10th Mountain soldiers smack his rifle down. "Don't shoot! Let 'em burn."

One of the Germans landed in a planter, the shrubs and trees catching fire from the flames on his clothing and skin. The German gunner screamed again as the fire consumed him alive. A second gunner managed to get into the Lagoon, extinguishing the flames, but because of the burns and the weight of his gear, he couldn't stay afloat and sank to the bottom. The third gunner got into the water, and managed to discard his gear where he floated, severely burned but still alive…

CRACK! Another rifle shot sounded and Bertha hit the ground. "God damn! Where did that come from?" Andy shouted.

"Sniper!" Sutherland commanded.

A soldier with a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) opened up, firing the twenty round magazine at the position to his front.

"Bertha! Hang on! I'm coming to get you!" Doc shouted, standing up only to have Sutherland yank him down.

CRACK! A third bullet sounded, missing Doc by half a hairsbreadth.

Kolopak impassively eyed the area ahead of him before they fell upon the Mexico Pavilion pyramid. "That's where I'd be." Kolopak began as he crept towards a pile of rubble on the other side of the burning flak gun.

"Cover him!" Sutherland ordered and two squads of American infantry, the sixteen sailors, as well as Andy and Doc opened up.

Hiding in the small maintenance shack atop the replica pyramid where he had moved in the night before, the German sniper surveyed the area where several of his compatriots were fighting against the American front lines. He had taken down the woman, but not before she had hit the flak gun with the Molotov cocktail.

He searched for a target. Hopefully he could locate an officer, or one of the troublesome American machineguns holding up the German advance. He aimed the crosshairs at the old woman he had shot. She lay on the ground, moving feebly, an M1 Thompson gun at her side.

Kolopak lay hidden in a pile of bricks and rubble. He aimed his rifle at the top of the pyramid. "Show yourself, bastard." Kolopak began.

Sunlight shined off the lens of a telescopic sight. Kolopak aimed at the glass, well aware he had only one shot and if he missed the German sniper might well claim him as the next victim. He could see Bertha was still alive, wounded, but still alive. She'd bleed out if he didn't kill this bastard soon. Kolopak aimed at the glinting light, and began to squeeze the trigger.

The German sniper knew that a sniper's worst enemy was another sniper. The Americans had been quiet. They had sent a burst of suppressing fire, but he assumed it was so a medic could treat the wounded old woman. He saw no medic anywhere near her. They could only have been covering for another sniper. He glanced around the area to his front, hoping to spot the bastard before he had been discovered.

He glanced at the burning flak gun. But no experienced sniper would use such a thing as cover. He aimed at a relatively innocuous pile of bricks when he saw the head of a man wearing a brown full brim hat with a feather in it. CRACK! The last thing the German saw in his sights was the muzzle flash of an American rifle.

Kolopak worked the bolt of his weapon after firing the single shot. No longer did the sun glint off of the telescopic sights of the German sniper. "Doc, you're clear!" Kolopak shouted.

Doc immediately raced up to Bertha. She'd been shot in the right shoulder. He propped her up and began to dress the wound. "I'll be OK, Doc, it's not as bad as it looks." Bertha winced as Doc put sulfa powder into the wound to clean it.

"I'll stay here with Bertha." Doc began.

"What's the situation?" Sutherland asked as he called up Allied HQ, based at Spaceship Earth on the radiotelephone.

"We've got Germans in the Horizons and World of Motion pavilions, but we've managed to contain them there. We're having a helluva a time clearing them out." Came the response, "Where the hell are you, Sutherland?"

"I'm at the border area between the Mexico pavilion and Future World." Sutherland replied, "Sir."

"New orders. You are to contain any German or Italian reinforcements to Future World. The rest of the company and the First Infantry Division boys will try and clear the Germans out of their toehold in Future World." Captain Watkins, the company commander of Able Company, 10th Mountain Division.

Kolopak took up the radio telephone on Andy's back and contacted the other detachment, "What's the situation on Future World West?"

"Kolopak," Prue's voice could be heard on the other side of the radio, "Are we glad to hear from you. It looks like the British, French and Canadians have contained the Japanese and Heartless from breaking into Future World."

"It sounds like they've got everything in hand over there." Kolopak replied.

BLAM! "Not exactly." Prue replied.

* * *

"Nice understatement." Sora groaned, as a stray bullet zoomed past them.

Vinny fired a short burst from his Tommy gun as a gang of Soldier Heartless managed to slip past the British defenses. They were being pushed back into the Canada pavilion, where soldiers from the Canadian Royal Winnipeg Rifles joined in the fighting.

The three Soldier Heartless were shredded by the .45 caliber rounds fired in a burst from Vinny's weapon. Afterward two Canadian soldiers were assisting a third, wounded Canadian between them.

Behind them came a group of about fifteen British soldiers, including Godfrey. Recognizing his friends, he said, "You'd best pull back, or at least warn Kolopak to get ready to lift off in a hurry."

"Godfrey, we're staying here." Prue replied.

"We've got Japanese troops and Heartless having overrun the UK pavilion and the Canada pavilion as well. We seem to have them contained for now but I'm not guaranteeing it's going to stay that way." Godfrey replied.

"What's your status?" Kolopak's voice sounded from the radio telephone that Goofy was carrying.

"Godfrey's telling us they've got the Japanese and their Heartless allies contained." Prue replied.

"We could use your help over here." Kolopak replied.

"I'll see you back at the _Morrowind._" Godfrey replied, as he and the group of British soldiers ran back into the fighting.

"Godfrey." Prue began, "Be careful."

"Right." Godfrey replied, as he turned back and ran towards the fighting.

Prue, Vinny, Donald, Goofy, and Sora raced across the park. As they ran, they saw smoke issuing from the World of Motion pavilion. Outside the pavilion, Prue saw a squad of American soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division about to enter the building, to remove the Germans and Italians that had barricaded themselves inside.

Two American stretcher bearers carried a limp, unmoving third soldier between them as they ran from the area. Prue used her telekinesis to send the butt of a German soldier's rifle into the underside of his jaw as he tried to take aim at Donald. A second German popped up, with a sub machinegun and opened fire. Goofy flung his shield up, and the 9mm rounds bounced off in several directions.

"Thunder!" Donald said, electrifying the German attacker. The group continued to run past, towards the sound of heavier fighting.

Andy sprinted, feeling like a duck at a shooting gallery. Around the back of his neck were several belts of .30 caliber ammunition for a machinegun. As he sprinted to the convention center area, he could feel the breeze as numerous bullets whizzed past his head.

He dived into the machinegun nest where he saw two soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division holed up. "Thanks Mac." One of the soldiers said.

As the soldier reloaded the ammunition, a group of German soldiers, followed by a band of Shadow Heartless came running across one of the walkways. The machinegun opened up, and Andy unslung his rifle and fired, as did the assistant machine gunner.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"Shit!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"Flak gun!" The other shouted, just as a 20mm shell blew off his head, splattering Andy with blood and brains.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"That 20 mil's killing us." Andy began.

"What was your first clue?" Kravitz, the gunner, said.

Andy heard a thump outside, the sound of concrete hitting metal. He glanced up just in time to see a concrete trash bin go flying and whack the German gunners at high velocity.

"Miss me?" Prue said, as she helped Andy to his feet, and giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Yeah." Andy replied.

"How'd you do that, lady?" Kravitz asked.

"Magic." Prue replied.

"I'm lucky I'm not you, pal." Kravitz quipped, in an upstate New York tone, "I'd hate to be around you two when you have a fight."

"Uhm, yeah, I've gotta see if the machinegun still works." The New Yorker replied at Andy's glare.

Kolopak's rifle spoke again, from across the bridge, and a Heartless that had survived the barrage of machinegun fire toppled into the lake.

"Nice shot, Kolopak." Prue quipped.

Kolopak waved from nearby. "You should have been there when he was picking off Nazis left and right." Andy remarked, "It was insane."

"Hey," came a shout, "What are these civilians doing here?"

Lieutenant Sutherland came over, just then. "They're members of the Morrowind's crew, sir." Kravitz remarked.

"Corporal," Sutherland said, with a Southern twang, "I don't care if they're the President's entourage. They're civilians and they shouldn't be here."

"Well, sir, the flank was saved by these 'civilians'." Kravitz replied.

"Kravitz…" Sutherland began.

"Guys, we've got bigger problems on our hands!" Prue remarked, grabbing the officer's collar and pointing at a German self propelled gun, an artillery piece on a tank chassis.

"Gotcha…" Vinny began, as he wound up three Walking Cherry Bombs that headed for the German vehicle.

The German vehicle fired a shell and the group scattered, just as it exploded into the side of the building. The Walking Cherry Bombs attached themselves to the treads of the vehicle and exploded, freezing the vehicle in place.

Just then a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division aimed a bazooka at the vehicle and fired a rocket, blowing it apart.

Matthias Vossman heard the officer give the order to retreat. After the breakthrough and the occupation of the two buildings in Future World East, the Americans had managed to reconstitute their lines and hold off almost every attempt at reinforcement.

Battered German and Italian units pulled back to their respective pavilions. Sergeant Haendler had been killed earlier in the fighting by the man with the feather in his hat. He was a rifleman of quite a lot of skill, for he had knocked off many Germans and Italians approaching Future World with single rifle shots, many of them to the head or neck. There was no choice but to retreat, regroup and fortify the Germany and Italy pavilions.

* * *

"The Axis forces are bottled up in their pavilions. We can keep them there indefinitely." Major Waverly said, "We can tell our forces to stand down after we've driven the Germans and Italians out of Horizons and World of Motion."

"Negative, Waverly." Lt. Colonel Briley, an American battalion commander with the 1st Infantry Division, "The Axis will use this time to regroup and will go after the Future World tech labs again."

"Agreed." Colonel Waters, a British officer and commander of all Allied Forces in EPCOT, "Order your forces to drive into the enemy pavilions. Root them out of there and then expel them from our territory."

"Yes sir." Waverly replied and called the Allied units to assault. British, Canadian and French forces were to attack the Japan pavilion, with the Americans coming in from behind. Meanwhile a joint American, Norwegian and British force would hit the Germans and Italians simultaneously.

* * *

The group had headed back to the _Morrowind _without Godfrey and D'Artagnan, because both men were being committed to the fighting against the Japanese and surviving Heartless. As they walked back, they saw that Horizons had been retaken, because the Americans put up their flag onto the roof. A line of German prisoners were being led off by a unit of MPs from the 1st Infantry Division.

There were still a few isolated grenade explosions coming from World of Motion, as the 1st Infantry was still attempting to retake it from a stubborn knot of Waffen SS troops that had beaten back four separate attacks.

"What's the verdict?" Prue asked Kolopak.

"We wait for Godfrey and D'Artagnan." Kolopak replied, "In the mean time, we'd best rearm. Vinny make some more bombs just in case."

As Kolopak spoke, he took several five round clips and loaded them into his bandoliers. "As if you need many reloads. It was spooky how you kept picking off Germans and Italians." Andy replied.

"One bullet. One kill." Kolopak replied.

"Way to understate that." Andy replied, "You drilled that German sniper right through the scope, with one bullet."

"And saved Bertha's life." Doc commented, "That's some scary talent you've got there, Kolopak."

"How is Bertha?" Kolopak asked.

"I've got her stabilized. The bulled passed clean through, but she'll be on light duty for a couple of months." Doc replied, "I'm keeping her under observation and bed rest for one week."

"Everyone, stand down, but keep your kit close to you. Be ready to go at any second. Grab some food and rest…" Kolopak ordered.

Prue went into her quarters to grab a few minutes of rest. "Nigel." She said.

A flash of orbs came in and Nigel appeared, "I see things are winding down in EPCOT."

"It sounds like it. But two of our crewmates are going to finish the job against the Axis…" Prue began.

"Godfrey and D'Artagnan, I know." Nigel replied.

"And then there's the matter of Andy." Prue replied, "Wait a minute…I just had an idea."

"And what would that be?" Nigel asked.

"Remember the Book of the Dead brings people back from the dead." Prue replied, "Well, if we can some how get it away from Imhotep…"

"Are you out of your mind?" Nigel asked.

"Since when do you act like Natalie?" Prue replied.

"Since you suggest suicide operations." Nigel replied, "Imhotep isn't likely to give it up easily, and with power over the sands and the force of the Twelve Plagues of Egypt, you could well be drawing yourselves into a battle you can't win."

"We've defeated demons, powerful demons, before." Prue protested, "We did defeat Shax."

"Yes." Nigel replied, "But hasn't it occurred to you that because Maleficent brought Andy back to life, that she calculated that you would try and save Andy. That's what I would do. I know, and she definitely knows, you're desperate to save Andy and what better bait than the Book of the Dead. Prue, I ask that you at least think this through before going after Imhotep."

Nigel orbed away then as Prue stared out at the EPCOT landscape, where smoke poured from several attractions damaged in the fighting.

* * *

Godfrey watched as several British soldiers around him received magazines for their rifles, and several of them fixed bayonets. Godfrey took some .30 caliber clips for his M1 Carbine as the British units formed up to close on EPCOT.

A line of Japanese soldiers, many with fixed bayonets, readied their weapons as they knew the British were coming their way. Safety catches on rifles were turned off as the British approached.

The British line moved forward, coordinating with an American line advancing towards the Japan pavilion from the east. As they moved towards the Japanese lines, bullets whizzed by the British soldiers. One zipped by inches from Godfrey's left ear.

A British soldier fired off his rifle, but Godfrey didn't see anything as he aimed his own weapon about.

The Japanese skirmish line moved forward towards the line of British troops with a loud war cry. The British opened fire immediately before the two skirmish lines collided with each other and the fighting became a hand to hand affair, with bayonets and rifle butts doing their fair share of killing.

The British broke through the Japanese line and into the pavilion itself. From nearby buildings several Japanese soldiers rushed out and charged the British line. D'Artagnan cut down a charging Japanese soldier with a short burst of gunfire.

A machinegun fired in bursts, killing several British soldiers before it was destroyed by hand grenades. Godfrey saw a Bandit Heartless about to fling his sword before he fired three shots, killing the creature.

The Americans on the eastern flank had already broken through, but isolated pockets of Japanese resistance remained. A running American soldier was ambushed by a Japanese soldier who bayoneted him, only to be gunned down by other Americans nearby.

After a few hours it was over. The Japanese who surrendered were herded out into the middle of the pavilion where they were searched for arms and the wounded were treated. Godfrey stood, watching the entire affair as medics treated the wounded, Allied and Japanese alike.

The sun set that day on a free EPCOT. The storm had passed before that day ended, with the technology of Future World spared from the hands of the Axis Powers and the villains.

* * *

End (Up Next. Things will really come to a head as our heroes race to try and save Andy's life...)

**_Hetai – _**A Japanese soldier.


End file.
